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Gem miner BlueRock Diamonds said it would start marketing its diamonds in Antwerp, partly because it attracted more buyers than the South African market.
The company had entered into an agreement with diamond broker Bonas for it to market diamonds from BlueRock's Kareevlei mine in South Africa through its Antwerp facility.
Bonas was the largest global independent diamond and gemstone tender and auction house, operating 50 sales a year, having sold 6.1m carats in 2019 and attracting around 160 buyers to its sales.
'The board is also of the view that the Antwerp market is likely to recover earlier than the domestic market primarily due to expected ongoing travel restrictions to and within South Africa and the fact that many of the international buyers have offices located in Antwerp,' BlueRock said.
It expected to export its first consignment of diamonds to Bonas towards the end of June.
BlueRock also announced that, together with Bonas, it had entered discussions with Delgatto Diamond Finance Fund (DDFF), a non-bank lender to the diamond and jewellery industry, to provide pre-sales finance.
A non-binding letter of intent had been agreed with DDFF to enable BlueRock to finance each monthly parcel at 70% of an agreed valuation for up to 12 months at a cost of 1.25% per month on the initial funding amount.
In addition, BlueRock said it had decided to focus on keeping its cost of production as low as possible.
It had therefore reduced development mining to align with lower annual production, removed contract crushing and freezed employment whilst continuing to manage overhead costs.
'The company will also benefit for a period from the weaker exchange rate and the material drop in the oil price,' it added.
'The company's expansion plans are on hold until the position becomes clearer, although the company wishes to implement them as soon as is practicable.'
At 1:45pm: (LON:BRD) Bluerock Diamonds Plc Ord 1p share price was -6.5p at 52p