LONDON (Alliance News) - Richland Resources Ltd, a gemstones producer and developer, on Monday said it produced about 156,000 carats, larger than four millimetres, in the third quarter as part of its production start-up and ramp-up process, and has set its production target at 250,000 carats for the fourth quarter.
"I am pleased with the progress achieved during Q3 with over 150,000 carats produced of which more than half was produced in September following extensive work and modifications to the processing plant," Chief Executive Bernard Olivier said in a statement.
It said that 21,628 tonnes of sapphire bearing alluvials were mined and processed in the quarter ended September 30.
The economical cut-off size has been set at four millimetres, with material smaller than 4mm in diameter being stock-piled for future sorting and grading.
An average grade of seven carats per tonnes was achieved for mined material larger than four millimetres.
The current estimated cash cost per carat amounts to less than USD3.0.
"We continue to keep a tight control on costs as evident from the estimated total cash cost per carat of less than USD3 [per] carat," Olivier said.
The gemstones producer said its first sapphire parcel sale concluded in September, with 1,200 carats sold at USD14.30 per carat.
"It should be noted that the parcel sold during late September at USD14.3 [per] carat was a customer specific parcel and does not represent run-of-mine material. Our sales strategy currently focuses on customer specific parcels to ensure that we get as much down-stream commitments and market penetration as possible for our material and I look forward to commenting in the coming weeks on further progress on the sales and marketing process," Olivier said.
It said that size and colour sorting, as well as quality grading of the material mined during the third quarter, is currently being completed in preparation for a larger and ongoing parcel sales process.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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