Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.  yesterday released its guidance for fiscal year 2019 for the Gahcho Kué Mine, as well as an update on the company's performance in 2018.   

The Company announced a production guidance for fiscal 2019 for the Gahcho Kué Mine (100% basis) of 3.1 to 3.2 million ore tonnes processed; and 6.6 – 6.9 million carats recovered. Mountain Province denoted production costs of C$ 110 – C$ 120 per tonne processed; and production costs of C$ 50 – C$ 54 per carat recovered as part of the same guidance.

In addition to the 2019 guidance, the Company also provided a three-year production outlook for the Gahcho Kué Mine from the updated life of mine plan as encapsulated in the table below:

“The production guidance over the three-year period 2019 to 2021 is evidence of a sustainable and smooth mining rate as the mine performance maintains a steady state,” Mountain Province stated.  “In the near term, ore tonnes mined and processed for 2019 will be predominantly from the Hearne pit where knowledge of the various kimberlite facies is still being gained as mining into this new area is being expanded.”

 The Company iterated that, as the mine has performed well in 2018, there is “high confidence” that the tonnes treated will be on target for the year and carats recovered will be above the upper end guidance of 6.6 million carats, all of which will be achieved within the expected working cost and capital budgets stated for 2018.

This year, the Company also spent a lot of time on exploration, and the results of the drilling   were announced in September 2018.

“During the remainder of 2018 and into 2019, and on the back of successful work completed so far, additional drilling will be undertaken to further delineate the extension of mineralization along these ore bodies,” Mountain Province declared. “The Company has confidence in this project and further potential success could improve the longer term prospects for the Gahcho Kué Mine.”

Apart from this, Mountain Province has planned additional enhancement work on its 100%-held Kennady properties. “Drilling conducted in 2017 extended the Faraday 2 kimberlite by 150 meters to the northwest, and core from this programme has been submitted to Saskatchewan Research Council for microdiamond recovery,” the Company said. “The microdiamond data will then be used to extend the inferred resource at Faraday 2, which will be reported in early 2019. A winter 2019 exploration programme is also scheduled to drill test geophysical anomalies located immediately to the southwest of the Gahcho Kué Mine.”

After the ninth sale, Mountain Province has repurchased an additional C$ 6.65 million (US$ 5 million) of the Company's debt. The total debt repurchased for the year now stands at C$ 26.6 million (US$ 20 million).

Stuart Brown, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer commented: "With the 2018 fiscal year coming to an end, we are well on our way to exceed the upper end of our 2018 guidance. As we look forward to 2019 and beyond, our business plan demonstrates the quality of our core asset and the excellent work that the operations team has carried out over the past year; both in exceeding the targets for the current year, and building a stronger longer term business plan that should extend the life of mine beyond 2028.”

He added:  "2018 has certainly been a difficult year for producers in the industry. The first half of the year was relatively calm with modest price increases seen across all categories of diamonds; however, from July onwards we have witnessed some price pressure, particularly in the smaller, lower quality diamond space. We did see a slight price improvement in the smaller lower quality goods in our recent 9th sale where we again sold all our available production. The improved sales performance was encouraging as we head into the peak diamond retail season, which if successful should hopefully translate into an improvement of confidence in the rough diamond market in 2019."

Mountain Province also announced that it had won the latest bid for fancies and specials, from the production at Gahcho Kué (Mountain Province and its JV partner De Beers Canada regularly bid for specific production of special stones).

“Included in the lot was an exceptional 60 carat vivid yellow sawable stone, the first one of this size and quality to come from the mine,” the Company elaborated. “The find demonstrates the mine's potential to produce excellent, large sized, fancy coloured stones. During 2018, the Company performed very well in its bids for Fancies and Specials, winning 8 out of 9 bids to date with profits achieved at sales representing a material contribution to revenue during the period.”