(IDEX Online) – Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. said its recently completed first diamond sale of 2018 produced the highest result to date in total dollar terms, with total sales of $27.3 million for an average value per carat of $78, and $83 on a normalized basis.<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
Mountain Province Diamonds is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The diamonds offered were sourced from the last production split of 2017.
"The stronger realized values reflect the improved size distribution observed in that split as well as the quality of the fancies and specials. In addition, robust demand saw prices increase an average of approximately 7% over those of the preceding sale held in December. Only half of the fancies and specials from the last production split of 2017 were offered in the sale, with the remainder deferred for inclusion in the upcoming second sale of 2018."
Reid Mackie, the company’s Vice President Diamond Marketing, said: “Our January sale broke all records in terms of revenue and customer activity. More than 200 companies participated, with 140 placing bids and delivering our highest revenue figure to date. 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.”
David Whittle, the company’s Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “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. Operationally, we note the strong plant throughput in January, representing exceptional performance in the heart of winter.”...