DFI’s Marine Mining Yield Rises, Average Prices Up 21%

Diamond Fields International (DFI) announced Monday that it sold a total of 1,958.19 carats at its most recent rough diamond sales for an average price of $258.36 per carat, a 21 percent increase over the previous year’s average sale price of $213 per carat.

A total of 2,763.28 carats were recovered by DFI during the month of March, the company’s best month since May 2007, DFI stated in a release. Total carats recovered to the end of the first quarter of 2008 came to 5,882.74; of this, 15,626 stones were gem quality, with an average weight of 0.38 carats per stone.

Commenting on the results, DFI CEO Wayne Malouf credited “the significant improvement in ship availability, a prerequisite in our program to make the marine operation more efficient.” Most of the diamonds were mined at DFI’s marine operations which were recently overhauled.

DFI recently announced that PriceWaterhouseCoopers had resigned as the company’s auditors, effective April 23, and that DFI’s head office had been moved from South Africa back to Vancouver, B.C.

DFI is a mining and exploration company with projects in West Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Madagascar, mining diamonds, gold, zinc, copper and nickel.