While the bare bones of Diavik’s production results also formed part of Rio Tinto’s (60% owner) production update reported yesterday, Dominion which is 40% owner, also revealed some additional data.

Dominion Diamond Corporation reporting the Diavik Diamond Mine production results for the first calendar quarter of 2016 said that a total of 1.88 million carats were recovered from 0.56 million tonnes of ore processed in the first quarter of the calendar year 2016. This represented an increase of 17% in ore processed (Q1 2015: 0.48 mn tonnes) and a hefty growth of 26% in terms of carats recovered (Q1 2015: 1.50 mn cts). 

Dominion attributed the higher volume in ore processed to “greater ore availability as a result of higher mining rates and availability of stockpiled ore”. While the increase in carats recovered reflected the “higher processing volumes and a higher recovered grade”, the Company said.

As announced, the new mine plan approved by both Rio Tinto plc and Dominion envisages mining and processing 2.1 million tonnes of ore, from which it expects to recover some 7.0 million carats of diamonds in 2016.

 Dominion said that during the year, mining activities will be carried out “exclusively underground.”

Apart from the 7.0 million carats expected to be produced from run of mine ore, the Company said there will be a small amount of production from Coarse Ore Rejects (COR). “This additional production is not included in the Company’s ore reserves, and is therefore incremental,” Dominion said. “Based on historical recovery rates, the tonnage of this material that is planned to be processed during calendar 2016 would produce 0.1 million carats from COR.”

Dominion has also drawn up a pricing model based on the Company’s sales during Q1 calendar year 2016, and the current diamond recovery profile of the Diavik processing plant. According to this model, the average price per carat stood as below:

Diavik Ore Type                     March 2016 Average Price per Carat (in US dollars)
A-154 South                           $130
A-154 North                            $175
A-418                                     $95
COR                                       $50