Rockwell Diamonds, a Canadian diamond miner, has produced 3,854 ct of diamonds during the fourth quarter of the fiscal 2013 ended 28 February.
The production represented a 5% drop compared to the same period of 2012 attributable to a 6% decline in the volume of gravel processed.
In addition, the Tirisano mine was placed under care and maintenance during the period that affected the quarterly output. Carat production at Klipdam operations fell by 45% to 1,133 carats.
Rockwell, however, reported an 11% increase to CAD9.1m ($8.78m) in total revenue, along with 19% year-on-year revenue growth from diamond sales.
Rockwell Diamonds CEO James Campbell stated that despite of being a difficult quarter, the company has undertaken decisive action at loss-making operations to have a positive fiscal 2014.
"We delivered good revenue growth, but our financial performance was impacted by the full costs of retrenchments and care-and-maintenance processes for Tirisano," explained Campbell.
Meanwhile, the company is currently working to further production profile in the Middle Orange River region, while building a $2.2m processing plant to bring the Niewejaarskraal mine back into production and ramping up output at Saxendrift Hill.
"Once these three mines are in operation, we will have reached the halfway mark of increasing production at our Middle Orange River operations to 500,000m3 per month in the medium term," said Campbell.
Also, Rockwell is estimating 5% and 10% increase in rough diamond prices for smaller diamonds during 2013.