Gem Diamonds, which raised $550 million last year when it floated on the London Stock Exchange and followed that with a series of acquisitions around the world, has finished the building of a second plant at Letseng, its key mine in the southern African kingdom of Lesotho, to dual its annual production of high-quality stones to 101,000 carats, worth an expected US$200 million ($107 million) at an average price of $2,000 a carat.

It is many times the world average of $91 a carat for uncut diamonds. In the
diamond business, values rise unreasonably for larger stones and those with particular brilliance, colours and other special features.

Gem has cut costs and boosted manufacture at the Ellendale mine in Western Australia after buying its previous owner, Kimberley Diamonds, for $131 million last year and hopes to produce 600,000 carats from the mine this year, with 730,000 carats on the cards for 2009. The company intends to go aboard on a new project at Gope in Botswana, costing some $225 million over three to four years, and is eyeing expansion and acquisition opportunities around the world.

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