Petra Diamonds, Ekapa Mining buy De Beers' Kimberley mines

Petra Diamonds Ltd and South African mining company Ekapa Mining would buy De Beers' Kimberley mines for 102 million rand ($7.1 million), the London-listed miner said.

Petra Diamonds, which owns the historic Finsch and Cullinan mines, said it would own a 49.9 percent interest in the mine, while Ekapa will hold the rest.

Petra's purchase is the latest in a string of acquisitions by the company of De Beers' mines. Its Finsch, Cullinan and Koffiefontein mines were all previously owned by Anglo American's De Beers.

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Shares in Petra were up 6 percent at 67.9 pence on the London Stock Exchange at 0840 GMT, and were the second-largest gainers on the FTSE Midcap Index

De Beers, which has been mining at Kimberley for more than a century, put the operations up for sale in May.

$1 = 14.4189 rand