JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diamond development, exploration and mining company DiamondCorp on Thursday reported a net loss of £2.75-million for the six months ended June 30, slightly up from the £2.2-million loss of the prior corresponding period, as the company moved towards starting long-life underground mining at its Lace mine, in the Free State.

The company reiterated that, during the six-month period, a revised development budget and schedule for the Lace mine was adopted, which would allow underground kimberlite mining to start from the high-grade Upper K4 (UK4) block in the first half of 2015, six months ahead of schedule.

Capital expenditure on underground development and mine infrastructure including conveyor belts, at the Lace project, totalled R76.8-million (£4.3-million) for the six months.

Meanwhile, operating expenses for the period were £869 266, down from £1.69-million previously.

During the period under review, the Lace processing plant operated primarily on tailings so that it could be maintained and optimised in readiness for kimberlite processing, including the UK4 bulk test and, accordingly, income from diamond sales for the period were capitalised as a credit to mine development, DiamondCorp noted.

Diamond recoveries from tailings for the period totalled 13 055 ct at an average recovered grade of 5.78 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht), against a budget of 5 cpht.

Further, diamond sales from Lace for the period totalled 14 583 ct, at an average $62/ct.

“The most valuable diamond sold was a 5.6 ct ‘sawable’, which achieved $3 250/ct,” the company said.

The company also generated additional income of $29 902 from diamond beneficiation and fine diamond sales.

“The period under review saw us move closer to our goal of starting long-life underground kimberlite mining at the Lace mine.

“Our constant attention to mining and development costs, and emphasis on diamonds recovered rather than tonnes throughput, positions us well to generate outstanding returns for our shareholders when mining starts from the UK4 block in the first half of 2015,” DiamondCorp CEO Paul Loudon said.

The company reported cash on hand as at June 30 of £7.75-million.