25 April 2019
Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. today announces production and sales results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 from the Gahcho Kué Diamond Mine. The Company also releases the details for its Q1 2019 earnings conference call and webcast.
Q1 2019 Highlights
•870,949 tonnes treated, an 11% increase on comparable quarter (Q1 2018: 786,000 tonnes).
•1,584,552 carats recovered at an average grade of 1.82 carats per tonne, slightly lower than the same period last year and mainly as a result of planned mine sequencing and lower grade ore tonnes treated during the quarter (Q1 2018: 1,641,000 carats and 2.09 carats per tonne).
•9,528,018 total tonnes mined, a 16% increase on comparable period (Q1 2018: 8,202,000).
•In Q1 2019, the Company sold 643,739 carats at an average value of $USD 71 per carat ($CAD 94 per carat) for total proceeds of $USD 45.8 million ($CAD 60.7 million) in comparison to 527,000 carats sold at an average value of $USD 99 per carat ($CAD 126 per carat) for total proceeds of $USD 52 million ($CAD 66.6 million) in Q1 2018.
Q1 2019 Diamond Sales
Results from the Company's first two diamond sales of 2019 were promising as demand for our diamonds increased and market prices stabilised.
Reid Mackie, the Company's Vice President of Diamond Marketing, commented: "We had a strong start to 2019 with increased customer demand for our product and price increases observed across most rough diamond categories, particularly in the better quality diamonds. The rough market is showing signs of stability and there are early signs of a potential price recovery in the cheaper run of mine products where we saw low single digit increases."
(all figures reported on a 100% basis unless otherwise stated)