Petra Diamonds annual revenues surge, raises FY22 guidance

Mining outfit Petra Diamonds reported a 38% increase in full-year revenues and forecast for higher production in 2022 on Wednesday.

Petra Diamonds said revenues for the twelve months ended 30 June had hit $406.9m, up from $295.8m in the previous year, driven by sales of stones valued at $5.0m or more, which contributed $60.2m during the year - a marked increase when compared to the $14.9m in the prior year and the highest annual contribution to revenues from the sale of exceptional stones in company history.

The AIM-listed group said production slipped from 3.59m carats to 3.24m as record production of 1.94m carats at its Cullinan site was offset by lower production at Finsch and Koffiefontein, while Williamson remained on care and maintenance.

Petra's lost time injury frequency rate increased to 0.44 from 0.29 but Petra said "remedial actions and various behaviour-based intervention programmes" were launched to improve the trend. Total injuries decreased from 45 to 42.

As a result of the solid full-year performance, Petra issued production guidance of 3.3-3.6m carats for the 2022 trading year, with the South African operations estimated to contribute roughly 3.1-3.4m carats and its Williamson mine, where plans were currently being refined to allow operations to restart during the first quarter, estimated to add between 220,000-270,000 carats for the year.

Chief executive Richard Duffy said: "The Petra team has navigated a difficult FY 2021 by delivering credible results whilst addressing numerous challenges around Covid-19 and the completion of our capital restructuring. This makes Cullinan's record performance, driven by Project 2022, all the more noteworthy.

"We enter FY 2022 with a considerably strengthened balance sheet and a more supportive diamond market than we have seen for some time."

As of 1100 BST, Petra shares had shot up 10.43% to 1.77p.