In its results for the year ended December 31, 2016, Mountain Province Diamonds Inc., a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kué diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories, reported a net income of C$ 4.8 million or C$ 0.03 per share fully diluted. For the three months ended December 31, 2016, the Company had reported a net loss of C$ 8.3 million or a loss of US$ 0.05 per share.

Gahcho Kué described as “the world’s largest new diamond mine” is projected to produce an average of 4.5 million carats annually over its 12-year mine life.

The construction of the mine was almost entirely completed by June 2016, with the commissioning of the mine plant taking place in July of the same year. “Ramp-up to commercial production commenced on August 1, 2016 and commercial production was declared on March 1, 2017 after the GK Mine achieved approximately 70% of nameplate capacity of 8,333 tonnes per day over a 30-day period,” Mountain Province said.

“From August 1 to December 31, 2016, the GK Mine on a 100 percent basis processed approximately 565,000 tonnes of ore through the process plant and recovered approximately 949,000 carats for an average grade of approximately 1.68 carats/tonne,” Mountain Province stated.

Further, the Company explained that about 1,361,223 carats were produced prior to declaring commercial production on March 1, 2017, of which approximately 668,449 carats, or 49%, are the Company’s share.

The Company reported that till March 29, 2017, it had conducted three diamond sales through its diamond broker based in Antwerp, Belgium, the results of which will be announced in the financial results for the first quarter of 2017.

“The approximately 340,575 carats mined prior to, and remaining in inventory at, the declaration of commercial production on March 1, 2017 (pre-commercial production diamond inventory) will be sold in future months and the revenue will be treated as pre-commercial production sales and credited to Property, Plant and Equipment,” the Company clarified.

Mountain Province also reported that as at December 31, 2016, it had drawn US$332 million of the US$370 million Loan Facility and at March 28, 2017 an additional US$25 million, leaving a balance of US$13 million which will be used to cover the June and September 2017 interest payments. At December 31, 2016, the Company had cash and restricted cash totalling C$ 90.7 million.

“Attendance at the Company’s first three diamond sales has been good, but rough diamond buyers remain cautious bidding for production from a new mine,” commented Mountain Province President and CEO Patrick Evans. “This price discovery period is expected to extend to midyear, when our first production will be sold into the polished market. Demonetisation in India also impacted both the demand for and realised prices achieved at the Company’s early sales of ramp-up diamond production. As liquidity returns to the Indian diamond sector, we expect to see improved demand and pricing for our production.”