London: DiamondCorp said its loss for the year ended December, 31, 2014 widened to £3.25-million from £2.61 million a year earlier.

The loss included administrative expenses of £1.6-million which have, however, fallen for the third year in a row as a result of “careful” attention to cost control, the company said in a statement.

Cash on hand at 31 December 2014 was £2.53m compared with £2.22m during the same period last year. Diamond recoveries from tailings for the year totalled 18 354 ct at a recovered grade of 5.96 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht).

Diamond sales totalled 21,700 carats for proceeds of $1,361,778 during the period under review. The average sales price was $63 per carat, slightly ahead of forecast for the year.

Profit share on two diamonds which were beneficiated and the sale of fine diamonds added a further $58,544 to income for the year.

Meanwhile, DiamondCorp said the development of the Upper K4 (UK4) mining block at its flagship Lace diamond mine, in South Africa, was on schedule for mining operations to start in the second half of the year ahead of schedule.

Underground core drilling of the UK4 block had delineated 2.6-million tonnes of high-grade kimberlite above the 370 m level – an increase of more than two-million tons over the original Lace geological model.

“This is a very exciting year for DiamondCorp, as underground development progresses at the Lace mine to extract high-grade kimberlite from the UK4 block in the coming months,” said company chairperson Euan Worthington.

“We are all waiting in eager anticipation to see the diamonds which we believe will generate positive cash flow, and enable repayments for us all once the mine is in full commercial production.”

DiamondCorp also said the processing of K6 kimberlite recovered from the production level drives had started.

As a result the company the recovered 19.83 ct clear white gem diamond – the largest gem diamond recovered so far from underground development.