Lucapa Diamond Company reported a loss of $1.3 million for the first half of the year as a sustained market slowdown led to a decline in prices for the mining company’s rough diamonds.

The loss for the six months to June 30 contrasts with a profit of $64,000 in the same period last year, the company said last week. At the same time, total revenue fell 24 percent year-on-year to $35.60, while the average price fell 26 percent to $1,213 per carat. Production for the January-July period fell 12 percent to 27,362 carats.

The company saw stable demand for diamonds over 2 carats in the first quarter, but this slowed in the second quarter, it said. Diamonds weighing more than 10 carats saw stable demand throughout the six months.

Revenue from Lucapa’s Lulo mine in Angola fell 18% to $27.2 million, while sales volumes fell 4% to 13,761 carats and the average price fell 15% to $1,976 per carat.

During the period, the company held four rough diamond sales and one special tender. The tender, which raised $10.5 million, included the sale of two rough diamonds weighing 203 and 116 carats. However, a second tender that the company had planned for the second quarter was postponed until July. The postponement of that sale – which included a 195-carat rough diamond, four other high-quality white diamonds and one pink – lowered the average price, Lucapa noted.

Lucapa completed six diamond sales from its Mothae mine in Lesotho under its offtake agreement with manufacturer Safdico. The company posted revenue of $8.4 million, down 38 percent from the previous year. A decline in the extraction of high-quality rough diamonds pushed the average price down 43 percent to $540 per carat. The miner sold Mothae to Lesotho-based mining services provider Lephema Executive Transport in June.

Image: The Lulo mine in Angola (Lucapa Diamond Company)