Blue Rock Diamonds achieves better results in 2021 over previous year despite challenges

Blue Rock Diamonds, the AIM listed diamond producer, which owns and operates the Kareevlei Diamond Mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa, announced its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2021 saying that the achieved results are significantly better than in 2020 despite major challenges including shutdowns due to DMR, Covid-19 and extreme weather.
The company said that its 2021 diamond output in carat terms went up by 53% over the previous year, which brought about more than doubled revenue driving it to £7.85m, while the number of recovered larger stones increased reaching a value in excess of USD50,000.
Blue Rock commissioned a new plant designed to increase production at Kareevlei to 1Mtpa from c 400,000tpa. The mine’s diamond resource was increased by 49% in net tonnes to 10,368,300 permitting to start opening up the main pit to reflect the upgraded Diamond Resource at depth and area. All this proves that Kareevlei’s fundamentals remain solid, the company said.
“The diamond market recovered well in 2021. Average price per carat in 2021 was USD470 compared with USD295 in 2020, although prices in 2020 were significantly impacted by Covid-19 and the consequent cancellations of the diamond auctions. Interestingly, the 2021 average price of USD470 is 13% higher than the average for 2019 of USD415, indicating that the market has come back stronger after the pandemic. Since the end of the year the market was initially volatile with a big spike in prices in February largely linked to the Ukraine situation. It has since stabilised, but at prices significantly higher than our average for 2021. We expect the supply side of quality diamonds, as those recovered by Kareevlei, to remain tight for the foreseeable future, with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine affecting the supply of rough diamonds,” said Michael Houston, Executive Chairman of Blue Rock.