https://www.miningweekly.com

Mountain Province's diamond sales start the year on a high note

14th February 2018

By: Henry Lazenby

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

     

Font size: - +

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Mountain Province Diamonds' first diamond tender of the year broke all records in terms of revenue and customer activity.

The TSX- and Nasdaq-listed company said the sale of 351 000 ct of rough diamonds has resulted in Mountain Province's highest revenue result to date, with total sale proceeds of $27.3-million, which gives an average value of $78/ct.

That is a 7% increase over the $53/ct value recorded for the December sale of 364 000 ct of rough stones on the back of robust demand.

"The results of this sale were driven not only by the quality of the diamonds on offer, but stronger rough-diamond prices generally, as we experienced an improvement in customer sentiment similar to that which has been reported by the industry generally. We have experienced general rough-diamond price increases of approximately 12% since October, supporting a view of improving market fundamentals," said Mountain Province interim CEO David Whittle.

The company noted that it offered only half its stock of fancies and specials from the last production split of 2017. The balance will be sold during the next tender.

De Beers owns a 51% stake in the Gahcho Kué diamond mine, and the two companies split the run-of-mine rough diamonds according to their stake in the venture, and bid against each other for the fancies and specials.

The stronger realised values reflected the improved size distribution, in that split, as well as the quality of the fancies and specials.

"Particularly promising is that all product areas saw healthy price increases, especially the large, special stone category which achieved both record prices per carat and the highest value individual stone sold by Mountain Province to date," VP for diamond marketing Reid Mackie commented.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION