LONDON (Alliance News) - Paragon Diamonds Ltd Friday said its pretax loss widened slightly in 2013 as a reduction in administration costs was offset by a loss in fair value of its derivative financial instruments.
The Lesotho-focused diamond development and production company, which is yet to produce any revenues, said its pretax loss widened to GBP1.3 million from GBP1.1 million in 2012.
The company said its administration costs fell to GBP706,000 from GBP1.1 million, but Paragon Diamonds said it was hit by a GBP558,000 charge for the loss of fair value on its derivative financial instruments.
During the period, Paragon Diamonds said it successfully developed the Lemphane site. It undertook major bulk sampling, completed a scoping study based on 27 million tonnes of kimberlite at the site, increased the tonnage of the site through drill testing, secured a steady water supply for the site, and signed a deal for a 75 tonne per hour processing plant to increase production capacity before being awarded its mining lease for 10 years at the site.
The company said on Friday it remains on course to start stage 1 production from its Lemphane project at the end of 2014 and expects to begin generating USD8 million per year in revenues from that point based on the production of 20,000 carats per year with an estimated value of USD750 per carat.
Paragon Diamonds shares were down 3.6% to 3.86 pence on Friday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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