Petra Diamonds’ sales fell 33% for the full fiscal year as the miner offered fewer goods and prices for rough fell in the weak market.
Revenue declined to $206 million for the 12 months that ended June 30, the company reported last week. Sales volume slipped 18% to 2.4 million carats. However, those figures do not take into account revenue derived from the Williamson mine in fiscal 2024, which Petra offloaded at the start of the year. When accounting for the addition of Williamson, revenue fell 44% year on year, according to Rapaport records.
The company, which operates the Cullinan and Finsch mines in South Africa, attributed some of the drop to $50 million in rough it held back from sale at the end of 2023 due to low prices, which it then sold in 2024. Last year, the miner also received a boost from the sale of the remaining portion of its rough from the Koffiefontein mine in South Africa, which has since closed.
In the fourth fiscal quarter, from April to June, revenue slid 49% year on year to $50 million, while sales volume decreased 26% to 687,870 carats. However, sales improved 19% from the previous quarter, the miner said.
Production grew 1% to 2.4 million carats for the full fiscal year, gaining 12% to 619,374 carats in the fourth quarter as the company accessed additional ore from the new mining areas at Cullinan.
Revenue at the company’s seventh tender of the year decreased 46% compared to the previous tender to $21 million. Sales volume at the June tender slumped 46% to 283,970 carats, while the average price remained flat at $73 per carat. The decline was the result of a lower overall product mix, outweighing a 7% improvement in Cullinan’s product mix as the company mined ore from the new portion of the deposit.
However, like-for-like prices were up 3% from the previous tender, showing “signs of some market recovery, especially in coarser goods,” Petra said.
During the year, the miner restructured, a measure that yielded savings of around $18 million to $20 million. At the end of the year, Petra had $30 million, or 328,689 carats, in rough inventory, compared to $31 million, or 397,182 carats, as at March 31. Meanwhile, its debt increased to $264 million from $258 million at the end of the previous quarter. The miner has refinanced its loans, which it was due to repay in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, and it will now owe in December 2029, a move that will allow it to preserve its cash flow to continue operations in the tough market, Petra stated.
Petra expects output for the new fiscal year ending June 2026 to be between 2.4 million and 2.8 million carats.
Image: The Finsch mine. (Petra Diamonds)