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London - Gem Diamonds discovered two diamonds bigger than 100 carats at its Lesotho mine, bringing the struggling miner a step closer to ending a drought of large stones.
Gem Diamonds unearthed a 104.73 carat D colour Type IIa diamond and a 151.52 carat Type I yellow diamond at its Letseng mine, the company said in a statement on Monday. Type IIa diamonds contain very little or no nitrogen atoms and are the most expensive stones.
DIAMOND 1: 104.73 carat D colour Type IIa diamond (Source: Gem Diamonds)
DIAMOND 2: 151.52 carat Type I yellow diamond (Source: Gem Diamonds)
Diamond find a boost for struggling firm
Until now, Gem Diamonds had reported just one large discovery this year - the unearthing a 114-carat diamond in April. The Letseng mine is renowned for the size and quality of its stones, with an average sales price of almost $2 000 a carat, the highest in the industry. Yet the company has suffered recently from a lack of big finds and discovered just five stones bigger than 100 carats last year, fewer than half as many that it found in 2015.
Gem Diamonds gained 2.2% to 93.5 pence a share at 11:17 on Monday, paring this year’s decline to 15%.
Gem Diamonds, which fell to a record low in April, has also been hurt by weakening prices for lower-quality stones produced at its Ghaghoo mine in Botswana. In February, the company said it was shutting the newly built operation because prices had fallen by one-third since 2015.
While the latest finds will offer some reassurance to investors, they’re not even close to the biggest found at Letseng. In 2015, Gem Diamonds sold a 357-carat stone for $19.3m and in 2006 it found the 603-carat Lesotho Promise.
Last week, 27% of shareholders voted against the re-election of Chief Executive Officer Clifford Elphick.
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