Dominion Diamond Reports Full-year Diamond Sales of $720.6 Million

Dominion Diamond Corp. (TSX:DDC,NYSE:DDC) announced sales results from its Ekati and Diavik diamond mines for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2016, as well as the full 2016 fiscal year. It also released production results from Ekati for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2016 and the full 2016 fiscal year, as well as the 2017 fiscal year mine plan for Ekati.
Highlights are as follows:

Sales:

• Fourth quarter diamond sales¹ were $178.1 million ($240.6 million in Q4 2015).
• Full year diamond sales² were $720.6 million ($915.7 million in FY2015).

Ekati Production:

• Excellent performance in the fourth quarter resulted in 42% higher carat production versus Q4 2015.
• During the quarter, tonnage processed was on forecast and the recovered grade was on par with or above modelled grade for all ore sources, which reflects the positive impact of the additional recovery resulting from the diamond liberation initiative.

Development:

• The first ore at the Misery Main pipe has now been mined.
• The first ore at the Pigeon pipe was mined at the end of November.
• The Lynx pre-stripping began on schedule in December.
• Exploratory drilling beneath the bottom of the completed Fox open pit to better understand the Fox Deep resource has now commenced.

Ekati Fiscal 2017 Mine Plan

• During fiscal 2017 the Company plans to produce 5.5 million carats from the processing of 3.9 million tonnes of ore (fiscal 2016: 3.7 million carats from the processing of 3.6 million tonnes).
• The Company expects to process high value ore from the Koala Underground, Misery Main, and Pigeon pipes as well as material from the Misery satellite pipes. Given the available sources of ore feed, the Company does not anticipate processing any low value Coarse Ore Rejects (“COR”) to fill the Ekati processing plant in fiscal 2017.

Click here to read the full Dominion Diamond Corp. (TSX:DDC,NYSE:DDC) press release.