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London - Africa-focused miner Petra Diamonds said core
profit fell 5.4% in the year to end June as higher rough diamond prices
outweighed a decline in production and rising costs.
Rough diamond prices rose steadily from last October to
highs in June 2011, but Petra said that recent economic uncertainty may cause
some price volatility in the short term.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
dipped to $67.1m, missing the consensus of $74.5m, from $70.9m the previous
year. The company has previously announced that revenue rose 24% in the year.
Petra completed the acquisition of a 74% interest in the
Finsch mine, South Africa's second-largest mine by output, last week. The mine
is expected to add at least 1 million carats to production for the
current financial year.
Finsch is expected to more than double Petra’s annual
production, adding about 1.5 million carats a year and almost 2 million carats
by full-year 2018.
Overall, Petra expects to produce about 4 million carats by
the full-year 2014 and more than 5 million carats a year by full-year 2019.
Petra has seven producing mines in South Africa and one in Tanzania.
