Petra Diamonds revenues leap but outlook uncertain

Petra Diamonds saw revenues jump in the last year as it almost doubled the amount of diamonds its dug up.

Revenues rose 44% to $316.9m in the year to the end of June as the company reported total diamond production had gone up by 98%.

The big jump in numbers were largely down to the firm's acquisition of the Finsch mine, South Africa's second largest diamond operation by production.

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Petra sold 77% more diamonds, by carat, than it did the previous year but warned of a rocky outlook in the short term.

The diamond market has been volatile recently, with the global macroeconomic climate and the ongoing financial crisis in the Eurozone in particular, weighing on rough and polished diamond prices.

"The rough diamond market is expected to remain under pressure in the short term," the firm said in its trading update.

"However, Petra's view is that the medium to long term outlook for diamond prices remains positive due to the well reported supply/demand fundamentals."

The company is targeting an increase in production from the 2.2m carats this year to over 5m carats in 2019.

Petra also announced it is to put its fissure mine operations, comprising the Helam, Sedibeng and Star mines in South Africa, on the block.

It said these were no longer core to the group and it would be focusing on its major assets to hit future production targets.