Kimberley Diamonds Ltd (KDL) announced that it has suspended operations at its Ellendale Diamond Mine located in West Kimberly Region of Western Australia. The company’s subsidiary, Kimberley Diamond Company Pty Ltd (KDC) which holds the mining licence to the mine will has been placed into voluntary administration.

KDL attributes this move to the recovery of lower grades and lower size distributions, resulting in lower prices being realised. KDC’s revenues were impacted despite it seeing strong processing results at Ellendale in recent months and having initiated a number of successful cost cutting initiatives. Prices achieved at the auction held last week in Antwerp were significantly lower than those forecasted, resulting from a sharp, unexpected decline in the rough diamond market, as per Kimberley Diamonds. As a result, KDC is unable to continue trading solvently and resulting in the KDC board placing KDC into external administration.

The voluntary administration does not apply to KDL or its other subsidiaries which hold the interests in the Lerala Diamond Mine in Botswana or the Lomero-Poyatos project in Spain. KDL is an international mining and exploration company operating in Australia, Africa and Europe.