Firestone Sells Second Batch of Rough Inventory RAPAPORT... Firestone Diamonds observed positive pricing in its third fiscal quarter as the company depleted its rough stockpiles amid the continued closure of the Liqhobong mine in Lesotho. The miner sold the second of two inventory batches that it had been offering to customers as a test of the market’s recovery. Some 19,942 carats of mainly smaller, run-of-mine goods fetched $900,000 at an average price of $47 per carat — the highest for that category since June 2018, Firestone said in a trading update last week. Still, sales for the third quarter ending March 31 were lower than the $3.6 million the company generated in the preceding three months. That period saw Firestone sell a larger parcel containing 43,269 carats, including higher-value special stones that drove an average price of $84 per carat.