Recently Petra Diamonds reported its audited Full Year 2024 results for the twelve months ended 30 June 2024. The average realised price in FY 2024 was US$116/ct, down 17% from US$139/ct in FY 2023, largely due to a 12.4% decline in like-for-like prices, with the balance attributed to product mix movements! Total on-mine cash costs in FY 2024 increased 11% compared to FY 2023.
In the row, Richard Duffy, Chief Executive Officer of Petra, commented, in FY 2024, Petra demonstrated its agility in responding to a weaker pricing environment by building greater business resilience. Actions taken during the Year reduced planned cash expenditure by US$75 million through deferring capital expansion programmes and sustainably reducing our cost base.
We have transitioned Finsch from a 2.8Mtpa to a 2.2Mtpa operation with greater emphasis on planning and maintenance. With our two South African mines starting to access fresh ore from newly developed project areas and Willamson at full production, we remain confident in meeting our FY 2025 guidance.
With a smoothed capital profile and US$44 million reduction in annual operating costs going forward (US$30 million at our SA operations and US$14 million at Williamson), we are targeting free cashflow generation from FY 2025.
We acknowledge the difficult market conditions through FY 2024 and believe that prices will stabilise through to the end of CY 2024 with some improvement expected in CY 2025. Ongoing discipline by producers is expected to assist in rebalancing inventory across the pipeline. We continue to see supportive market fundamentals in the medium and longer term.
We are rolling out traceability technology for our South African operations which will enable the tracing of our +0.5ct gem-quality diamonds from mine-to-finger. This will provide consumers with assurance and verification around provenance and origin along with information on our sustainability credentials (including social and community projects) which are supported through purchases of our diamonds.
We believe traceability technologies will further differentiate natural diamonds through highlighting their rarity, uniqueness and benefits to stakeholders.
As part of the focus on addressing our capital structure, we initiated the repurchase of a portion of our 2026 2L Notes through an Open Market Repurchase (OMR) programme. To date, we have repurchased and cancelled US$12 million 2L Notes at a cost of US$9million, resulting in future interest savings of some US$1.2 million annually.
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