Mountain Province Reports Record Production at Gahcho Kue

Mountain Province Diamonds (TSX:MPVD) has released its production and sales results for the fourth quarter of 2018, as well as the full year totals from mining activity at the Gahcho Kué diamond mine.

As quoted from the press release:

Q4 and Full Year 2018 Production Highlights

(all figures reported on a 100 percent basis unless otherwise stated)

751,448 tonnes treated during the fourth quarter, 8 percent higher than the same quarter last year. For the full year 2018, the plant treated 3,194,360 tonnes,15 percent higher than in FY 2017.

In Q4 2018,1,545,786 carats were recovered at an average grade of 2.06 carats per tonne. Full year 2018, 6,936,894 carats at an average grade of 2.17 carats per tonne, 17 percent higher than total carats recovered in 2017.

In Q4 2018, the company sold 822,548 carats at an average value of $US65 per carat ($C86 per carat) for total proceeds of $US53.6 million ($C70.5 million). For the full year 2018, the company sold 3,252,491 carats at an average value of $US74 per carat ($C96 per carat) for total proceeds of $US240 million ($C311 million).

Q4 and Full Year 2018 Diamond Sales

Diamond sales were in line with our expectations and reflect current market conditions. Prices for the better quality larger goods, where the majority of our value lies, remained strong throughout the year, however, during the latter part of H2 2018, lower qualities and smaller sizes experienced price pressure, driven predominantly by a weakened Indian Rupee against the US Dollar. Demand at retail in both the US and China for luxury goods were reported to be strong overall in 2018, initial reports from the Chinese and US holiday retail season are generally positive.

Reid Mackie, the company’s vice president of diamond marketing, commented: “we had a strong start to 2018 with price increases in most rough diamond categories. Low quality and smaller sized rough diamonds did experience price pressure during H2 2018, but our sales process attracted sufficient demand to achieve the selling of all our production for the year.  We expect to see more interest in the first quarter rough sales where the market is traditionally stronger.”

Click here to read the full announcement