US$300k per Carat for Blue Diamond

Petra Diamonds Limited announces that its shares will today be admitted, with a premium listing, to the Official List of the United Kingdom Listing Authority (“UKLA”) and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market (“Main Market”) (together, “Admission”). Dealings in the Company’s ordinary shares will commence on the Main Market today at 8.00 a.m. GMT and cancellation of trading in the ordinary shares on AIM will take place simultaneously.

The prospectus, prepared by the Company in connection with Admission, is available free of charge at the office of Memery Crystal LLP, 44 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AP during normal business hours and on the Company’s website.

Sale of blue diamond for record price per carat

In addition, Petra announces that at its most recent tender in early December it sold a 4.8 carat blue diamond (produced from the Cullinan mine) for US$1.45 million, equivalent to over US$300,000 per carat. This is the highest amount achieved on a per carat basis for any rough diamond sold by the Company. Petra is also confident that it is one of the highest values per carat ever achieved on the sale of a rough diamond by any rough diamond producer. Cullinan is renowned as the world’s only reliable source of blue diamonds and this sale demonstrates how rare and desirable they are to the international market.

Main Market step up

Petra’s step up, with a premium listing, to the Main Market is another important development in the Company’s progress, underscoring the success of the Company’s transformation from a junior diamond exploration company to become a leading independent diamond producer.

Since 2007, Petra has acquired five important ‘kimberlite pipe’ diamond mines from De Beers, being (in chronological order) Koffiefontein (South Africa), Cullinan (South Africa), Williamson (Tanzania), Kimberley Underground (South Africa) and Finsch (South Africa). The compilation of this portfolio of quality assets has seen the Group record the following growth from FY 2007 to FY 2011:

· resources have risen from 9 million carats to over 300 million carats, giving the Group one of the world’s largest diamond resources;
· annual production has risen from ca. 180,000 carats to over 1.1 million carats per annum;
· revenue has increased from US$17.0 million to US$220.6 million; and
· profit after tax has grown from a loss of US$20.9 million to US$59.2 million.

The Directors believe that the listing of Petra’s ordinary shares on the premium segment of the Official List and trading of Petra’s ordinary shares on the Main Market provides the appropriate platform for the Company’s continued growth, allowing a broader range of investors, seeking direct exposure to the positive long term fundamentals of the diamond market, to invest in the Company.

Adonis Pouroulis, Chairman of Petra, commented:

“Over the last few years, Petra’s rapid development has seen the Company grow to become London’s largest quoted diamond mining group. We have compiled a world class portfolio of long life assets, which produce some of the world’s most spectacular diamonds, as evidenced by the sale of the Cullinan blue for over US$300,000 per carat. Our core objective is to continue to deliver substantial growth over the coming years, as we steadily increase annual production to over 5 million carats by FY 2019, placing Petra in a strong position to benefit from the long term supply/demand fundamentals of the rough diamond market.”