Slim pickings all around

Frances Geraghty, a copywriter at NW Ayer, came up with the celebrated theory that “a diamond is forever” to suggest a link between the diamond and the eternal romance twinkling in the eyes of the newly betrothed couple.

While it would clearly be ungentlemanly to point fingers, there may be a few recipients for whom the diamond is a little more ephemeral, proving difficult to locate when pinched, dropped down a storm drain or received with alacrity by the outlet pipe of a hotel shower.

The diamonds that Trans Hex is sniffing after have certainly been around for a while, having formed about 100m years ago, when kimberlites intruded into the interior of SA during the Cretaceous period and then eroded, dumping the stones, which were washed towards the West Coast in various proto-river systems.

Sadly for Trans Hex and its longsuffering shareholders, the days of strolling around and picking up an egg-sized rock are long gone, and today the pickings are considerably slimmer.

The company’s losses for the year have widened to R182.6m as a result of a 24.6% fall in production in its SA operations and a 2.2% drop in the average US$ selling price.

It expects production in its Lower Orange River operations to be a little higher in the year to come, while its West Coast Resources operation is predicting a rise in production from 80,506 carats to about 150,000 carats. It is continuing to investigate new properties and will be hoping that a firmer market and a rise in production will get it back into the black.