Tahera reports $14.7M first-quarter net loss

The Tahera Diamond Corp., which runs the Jericho Diamond Mine in Nunavut, has reported a net loss of $14.7 million between Jan. 1and the end of March.

The loss is partly due to not enough diamonds being recovered, as Tahera had recovered about half the numberit had anticipated. The Jericho mine is located about 360 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay.

In a release issued May 4, the company stated that "continuing negative cash flows being experienced at the Jericho Diamond Mine operations, combined with the requirement to fund winter road inventory purchases, led to the completion of a $22.5 million financing" on April 17.

But Tahera chairman Peter Gillin said the company is trying to turn things around.

"Mining startups are always tricky business, and I think that mining startups in the diamond business are particularly tricky," Gillin said. "We are a small company in a big-company business, so we're doing our best to make this successful and we remain optimistic that we'll do so."

Gillin says the company will make changes in the mill in an effort to recover more diamonds. It hasn't mined the area of the kimberlite pipe that holds more stones. Still, Gillin is hoping Tahera will break even this year and turn a profit in 2008.