Petra Diamonds Ltd (LON:PDL) shares rose on Monday as the firm reported a jump in third-quarter revenue driven by record quarter for production.
In a trading update, the small cap firm said its revenue for the quarter ended March 31 rose by 44% to US$172mln, up from US$119.1mln a year earlier, as it sold 1,373,771 carats of diamonds compared to 1,069,886 sold at the same stage a year earlier.
READ: Petra Diamond’s shares plummet as miner warns on full year earnings, cuts production guidance
The group said its revenue for the nine months to March 31 increased by 14% to US$397.3mln from 3.2mln carats sold, compared to US$347.6mln from 3.0mln carats sold in the same period last year.
Petra Diamonds saw its run-of-mine (ROM) production for the third quarter increase by 29% to 981,201 carats, up from 760,916 carats. It’s ROM carat production contributed 82% of the group’s total carats recovered during the period, in line with its focus on value rather than volume production.
However, the company also said its full year 2018 revenue "continues to be impacted by the inability to sell the blocked Williamson parcel of about 71,000 carats". A parcel of diamonds from the Williamson mine was detained by the government of Tanzania in September 2017.
Petra said it "continues to engage with the government of Tanzania in order to reach a satisfactory solution with regards to the first parcel of diamonds".
Johan Dippenaar, Petra's chief executive, commented: “The future focus of the company will move away from volume targets to value optimisation.”
He added: “While we are very encouraged by the operational delivery against our long-term expansion plans, risks to performance continue to relate to increase volatility in the ZAR/US$ exchange rate, grade and pricing variability at Cullinan, as well as the outlook for Williamson and the blocked diamond parcel.”
In late morning trading, Petra's shares were 5.7% higher at 68.55p.