Diamond Miner Trans Hex Sees Earnings Drop

Yearly earnings for diamond company Trans Hex has come up short, Mining Weekly reports. For the fiscal year running from April 2012 to March 2013, Trans Hex per-share earnings dropped by a full 59.3%, from $1.96 to $0.80. Headline earnings also dropped year-over-year, from $1.95 to $0.70.

The decrease in earnings was to be expected, since the firm's diamond production had also fallen during the same period. Though Trans Hex mined 84,409 carat of rough diamonds in South Africa between April 2011 and March 2012, it only harvested 67,115 carats of rough diamonds there between April 2012 and March 2013, which represented a 20.4% decline.

Likewise, its diamond mining in Angola also decreased in intensity, with production dropping from 45,869 carats on the fiscal year to just 41,313 carats. The drop in carats recovered was especially disappointing, in light of the fact that the volume of gravel treated by Trans Hex actually increased by 10% during this time period, according to Mining Weekly.

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