Lucara Reports $13.9m Loss
August 13, 20
(IDEX Online) - The Canadian miner Lucara reported a Q2 loss of £13.9m, after choosing not to sell any of its larger stones.
Last year it made a 0.7m profit in the same quarter.
During Q2 2020 it sold smaller stones from its Karoe mine (pictured), in Botswana, at a single tender in Antwerp and through its digital sales platform Clara - five sales of stones between one and 10 carats - generating a total of $7.5m (compared with $42.5m in Q2 2019).
But it made a deliberate decision to withhold all +10.8 carat production in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead it will sell them through the Antwerp-based HB Group in what it has described as a "groundbreaking partnership".
Lucara hopes to realize revenue from the agreement during Q3. Larger stones account for 70 per cent of its revenue.
Prices fell sharply during Q2 with diamonds achieving just $109 per carat (compared with Q2 2019: $417 per carat).
Lucara says 2020 guidance remains suspended because the full impact of COVID-19 on its operations and production outlook is still so uncertain.