Petra Diamonds has reported a 15% increase in production to 743,424 carats for the third quarter of 2014, compared with 647,248 carats for the same period a year ago.
The production was driven by strong run rate and increased contribution from Finsch mine where diamond production increased 34% to 460,144 carats.
Revenues increased 55% to $163.9m, compared with $105.7m, including the 29.6 carat blue diamond which was sold for $25.6m.
Petra Diamonds CEO Johan Dippenaar said, "Petra continues to deliver further production and revenue growth, and these results demonstrate that the Company is firmly on track to meet its full year target of circa 3 million carats.
"The diamond market has had an encouragingly strong start to 2014, further underpinning Petra’s positive outlook for the remainder of the 2014 financial year."
Due to the seasonal timing of Petra’s diamond sales, revenue is weighted towards the second half of the year.
For the nine months ended 31 March 2014, production was up 26% to 2,379,140 carats from 1,894,767 carats in 2013.
As of 31 March, Petra had $29.7m in cash, diamond debtors of $64.9m and net debt of $118m.