BlueRock Diamonds sees no impact from SA lockdown extension

BlueRock Diamonds said on Tuesday that the extension of the lockdown in South Africa will not have any direct impact on the strategy it announced last week.

The AIM-listed diamond producer’s Kareevlei mine in SA has been on care and maintenance since operations were suspended on 24 March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last Thursday, South Africa announced that the lockdown there will be in place until the end of April.

Executive chairman Mike Houston said: "The extension to the lockdown period is not a surprise and is consistent with what is happening in countries around the world. The extension has no direct impact upon our strategy and we continue to ensure that we minimise costs whilst we are in care and maintenance and to explore alternative ways to commercialise our product so that we are best placed to fire up production as soon as we are able.

"I will ensure we keep the market fully briefed on any material changes."