BlueRock Diamonds' shares fall on transition delays to 24-hour processing

BlueRock Diamonds' shares fell more than 5% as it said delays in the planned move to 24-hour processing would delay revenue and cash flows from the production and sale of diamonds.

News of the delays followed BlueRock commenting that its primary crushing and screening circuit had been commissioned and that the plant upgrade was now complete.

"The company has been able to operate full processing for a longest continuous period of seven hours, with the plant demonstrating hourly capacity in line with expectations," it said in a statement.

"Processing continues, but the move to extended continuous processing and then to 24-hour processing has been hampered by the continued unusually high rainfall being experienced in the Northern Cape," said BlueRock.

It added that rainfall in January and February alone represented almost double the full-year average experienced over recent years.

At 13:13 GMT, shares in AIM-quoted BlueRock were down 5.88% to 4p each.