Petra Diamonds’ rough prices decreased at its latest tender as it offered smaller, lower-quality goods from its Cullinan mine in South Africa.
The combined fifth and sixth trading sessions, which took place in part in April and finished in June, brought in $53 million from the sale of 613,747 carats, the miner reported Monday. Like-for-like prices improved 3% across most product categories, compared with the fourth tender in February. The sales value was higher than February’s $39 million due to the larger proportion of goods offered at the combined tenders, but was down 43% from the equivalent tenders in 2024. Sales volume increased 29% from February but dropped 16% year on year, while the average price slid to $86 per carat from $127 per carat at the fifth and sixth tenders last year.
Part of the drop in the average price was the result of a weaker product mix than at the previous tender, due to issues at the miner’s Cullinan deposit. The site’s C-Cut ore portion, from which the company had previously been retrieving its rough, is reaching its end of life and is therefore producing fewer gem-quality stones, especially those above 10.8 carats. The slowdown in demand also hit prices.
The tender total includes 84,479 carats from the Williamson mine in Tanzania, which garnered $14 million. Those goods were the remainder of rough left after Petra sold the deposit earlier this year.
Revenue from the first six tenders of 2025 fell 27% year on year to $239 million. Sales volume slipped 15% to 2.4 million carats, and the average price decreased 14% to $100 per carat. Like-for-like rough prices declined 16% compared to the equivalent six tenders a year ago.
Petra will no longer issue reports on individual tenders, due to the fluctuations in diamond prices and demand, it said. Those changes have resulted in the miner no longer following a regular tender cycle, with the possibility of postponing future sales, as well as selling goods as run-of-mine, it added.
Image: A rough diamond. (Petra Diamonds)
