Gem Diamonds announces half yearly results

Gem Diamonds Limited announced its performance for the first six months of 2015 closing June 30. The company recorded a 20.75 percent drop in its revenues to US$ 118 million (US$ 148.9 million in the same period of 2014), reports say. There was a 21.82 percent drop in profits which stood at US$ 15.4 million from US$ 19.7 million in the comparable period last year.

The six months recorded fall in production at the Letseng mine. The number of carats recovered from the mine dropped to 50,019 carats (54,678 carats in H1 2014) The average per carat price was at $2,264 ($2,747 in H1 2014). Here, amongst the recovery, five diamonds were of over 100 carats and 13 diamonds together recorded a total sales value of over US$ 1 million each. At the Ghagoo mine 35,283 carats were recovered, reports add.

Also, the company declared a maiden dividend of 5 US cents per share (US$ 6.9 million in H1 2014) and paid it on June 9, 2015, as per reports.