Rio Tinto’s diamond unit gross revenues slip 23%

Mining giant Rio Tinto announced its interim results for the first six months of 2015. In this period, the company’s diamond business delivered a 23 percent loss in gross revenues, which valued $331 million, reports say. Overall, the company noted that across its commodities, there was a 43 percent drop in its net earnings to value $2.9 billion, reports add.

There was a dip in the diamond unit’s EBITDA from $ 156 million in the six months of last year to $ 144 million in the current year’s six months under consideration. In the period, net earnings were up from $18 million to $ 31 million (on y-o-y basis).

The comp any sold the 77.8-percent interest it held in the Murowa mine in Zimbabwe, this year in June. Also, its production in the said six months rose 18 percent in volume terms 8.851 million carats. It noted the contribution was mainly with the higher volumes from Argyle recovered from the continued ramp up of production at the mine, which compensated for lower carats recovered at Diavik, which reflected lower ore availability due to mining progressing through an area of higher dilution in the first quarter and the absence of stockpiled ore which was processed in 2014 first half, reports add.

According to Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh, “This is a robust set of results, given the tough operating environment. Tier one assets and sound operating capability have delivered stable margins with underlying earnings of $2.9 billion during the half. Post-tax operating cash flows of $4.4 billion more than covered our sustaining capital expenditure of $1.2 billion and dividend payments of $2.2 billion.”