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.