DiamondCorp has announced that the 22.1 ct rough diamond recovered at the Lace Mine in South Africa, has been cut into two polished diamonds and sold with significant added value by the Company's beneficiation joint venture.

It may be recalled that the 22.1 carat H coloured diamond was sold to the Company's beneficiation joint venture in January this year. It has subsequently been manufactured into two high quality diamonds - a 7.2 carat F coloured VVS2 emerald cut diamond and a 0.9 carat E coloured VS1 pear shaped diamond.

The two polished stones have been sold for a total of US$ 261,361. DiamondCorp's 50% share of the profit on the sale of the two polished diamonds is $71,979, lifting the total revenue on this one stone to $182,529, or $8,256 per carat, the Company said.

DiamondCorp CEO Paul Loudon said: “This is an early indication of the significant additional value which can be created through beneficiating special and exceptional quality diamonds from Lace. To date, all the Lace diamonds which we have beneficiated have improved in colour, which is critical knowledge to have for optimising the marketing of our production.”

DiamondCorp also reported that all sales proceeds from the first tender have been collected without default and that no diamonds were held back or withdrawn from sale.

It said that certain operational issues have been resolved and the Company is on schedule to produce in excess of 75,000 carats from kimberlite in 2016 and in excess of 125,000 carats in 2017.