Mountain Province Diamonds, the 49 percent partner with De Beers in the Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada’s Northwest Territories, reported earnings of $21.1 million from its recently concluded fifth sale of 2017.
An overall average of $95 per carat was achieved at the sale, but Mountain Provinces said that the sale of selected fancies and specials won by the company, that were otherwise scheduled for the sixth sale in July, elevated prices for the fifth sale. Excluding these high value diamonds, the average per carat price achieved stands at $75.
Mountain Province said that notwithstanding this, the fifth sale is the company’s strongest sale performance to date and apart from the very strong prices achieved for the fancies and specials, the prices realised for the remainder offering also exceeded expectations.
Mountain Province Vice President for Diamond Marketing Reid Mackie observed, “The June tender sale was our best attended to date and produced a record number of bids. Repeat customers won 75 percent of lots, indicating that the rough market’s understanding of our diamonds’ performance at manufacturing is positive and well on track.”
Interim President and CEO David Whittle said, “With the winterisation improvements successfully completed, the mine has made good progress in catching up on production tonnage relative to plan. As a result, combined with notably positive recovered grade performance, year-to-date carat production has fully caught up to plan. Given the positive experience in our diamond marketing efforts, the trend leading in to the second half of the year of production is encouraging.”
https://www.gemkonnect.com/news/mountain-province-achieves-best-prices-date-gahcho-ku%C3%A9-tender