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Tanzanite One plans expansion
After returning to profits last year, blue-violet gem producer Tanzanite One (TNZ) is upgrading its resource and eyeing new gem prospects. The former AIM star, now headed by geologist Bernard Olivier, sees the recovery in tanzanite prices from their 2008 credit-crunch low to have 25 per cent more mileage yet, after turning a $4 million (£2.5 million) loss into pre-tax profits of $251,000 last year on turnover up 28 per cent to $15.9 million.
TNZ, which notes that tanzanite prices tend to follow moves in now strongly-recovering rough diamonds, lifted production from Merelani in Tanzania, the world's only significant source of tanzanite, 8.3 per cent to 609,737 carats in the first quarter of this year with an average grade up 29 per cent to 77 carats a tonne. With rising prices, this translated into a 48 per cent first-quarter sales gain to $3.96 million.
The well-regarded Olivier, who foreshadows a potential listing and possible fund raising on Tanzania's Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange, has restructured and slimmed down Tanzanite One since returning to the helm after a series of corporate mishaps and an abortive partial bid from emeralds counter Gemfields, still a 10 per cent holder, had brought it to its nadir. The company has lately recovered an exceptional 21,000-carat stone, potentially worth around $1 million, though its average stone size is nearer two carats.
A Tanzanian ban on rough tanzanite exports above five carats-a-stone has prompted TNZ to open its own cutting and polishing facility in the country, which should substantially enhance margins on the proportion of output treated in this way. Already talking to potential Chinese investors, Olivier is directing tanzanite marketing at China and South East Asia, diversifying into tsavorite (an intense green gem) in Tanzania and considering moves into producing other coloured gemstones, such as sapphires in Queensland and rubies and sapphires in Ireland.
With diversification could come a new name for the company, whose shares soared from 2004's 42p float price to 265p in two years, before later collapsing to 6.5p. They have now perked up to 13.5p, valuing the company at £15.6 million, and, despite the clear risks, could now reward a strong-nerved punt.
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