30th Jun 2016 12:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - BlueRock Diamonds PLC on Thursday said its loss widened in 2015 as finance costs came in more than eight times higher than in 2014 largely due to losses on foreign exchange transactions.
The mining company with activities in the Kimberley region of South Africa, namely a diamond processing plant and the mining right over the Kareevlei Tenements, posted revenue of GBP264,373 for 2015, down from GBP65,084 a year earlier, and finance costs rose to GBP443,678 from GBP52,269. Together these meant BlueRock's pretax loss widened to GBP1.1 million from GBP649,430.
"At 31 December 2015, if the pound sterling had weakened or strengthened by 12% against the South African rand with all other variables held constant, post-tax loss for the year would have been GBP94,000 lower or GBP74,000 higher, mainly as a result of foreign exchange gains or losses on translation of South African rand denominated trade receivables and intragroup borrowings," the company said.
BlueRock said the loss in 2015 also reflected the "challenges faced by the group in the transition from trial mining to full operation", although noted that it had reached its interim target of combined production of 20,000 tonnes per month, albeit with a "much reduced" recovery rate of 2.0 carats per hundred tonnes.
"Rather than continue to produce at these levels, it was decided to conduct a review of our plant efficiency and decided to reduce production levels in this period in order to more easily assess the shortcomings in our plant configuration. During this time we have continued to develop our KV2 pit and now have a drill and blast plan in place to provide ample supply of kimberlite to our plants for the foreseeable future," BlueRock said in a statement.
BlueRock said the average value per carat that it achieved over the year was USD261, "significantly in excess" of the original estimate of USD183 per carat and the updated estimate of USD232 per carat.
"We are carrying out more work on the least known of our kimberlites (the pipe known as KV5) and will update the market of the results later in the year. Our license area covers 3000 hectares and we intend to do more evaluation on the whole area as well as continuing to look for more Kimberlite assets in the Northern Cape and the outlying areas," Chief Executive Adam Waugh said.
Shares in BlueRock were untraded on Thursday, having last traded at 12.00 pence.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
BRD.L