Mountain Province Diamonds Inc., releasing its production and sales results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019, said yesterday that the decline in carats recovered and grade, though lower than during the same period last year, was “slightly ahead of expectations.”

Giving details of the production performance, Mountain Province said that 870,949 tonnes of ore were treated, an 11% increase on comparable quarter (Q1 2018: 786,000 tonnes) while just over 9.5 million tonnes of material were mined during the first quarter, 16% higher than the same period last year.

The Company said it had recovered 1,584,552 carats 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). It added that it was implementing changes in the plant which will result in higher throughput in tonnes treated by increasing sieve sizes to accommodate the recovery of larger and higher quality stones at a faster pace.

On the sales front, the Company said that it sold 643,739 carats at an average value of US$ 71 per carat for total proceeds of US$ 45.8 million in comparison to 527,000 carats sold at an average value of US$ 99 per carat for total proceeds of US$ 52 million in Q1 2018. It stated that there was increased customer demand for the product with price increases across most categories, adding that the market is showing early signs of a price recovery even in cheaper run-of-mine products.

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."

The GK Mine remains on track to achieve it's 2019 production guidance of 6.6 – 6.9 million carats.

Stuart Brown, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "we have had a solid start to the year with our Q1 sales and production results slightly ahead of our expectations.  We remain on track to achieve our 2019 target of 3.3 – 3.45 million carats (our 49% share of the full production) recovered, which together with the improving diamond market and the planned plant enhancements will translate into a better operating margin."