Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. reported a 17% increase in carats recovered from the Gahcho Kué diamond mine in Canada during 2018 to 6.94 million carats at an average grade of 2.17 carats per tonne. 11.4 million total tonnes were mined during Q4 2018 bringing the full year 2018 figures to over 41.4 million tonnes or 25% higher than in 2017, the Company said.

In the quarter that ended Dec 31, 2018, 1.55 mn cts were recovered from the mine at an average grade of 2.06 cpt with 751,448 tonnes treated during the fourth quarter, 8% higher than the same quarter last year. For the full year 2018, the plant treated 3,194,360 tonnes,15% higher than in FY 2017.

The Company also reported that it sold 822,548 carats in Q4 2018 at an average value of US$ 65 per carat for total proceeds of US$ 53.6 million. For the full year 2018, the Company sold 3,252,491 carats at an average value of US$ 74 per carat for total proceeds of US$ 240 million.

According to Mountain Province, diamond sales were in line with its expectations and were a reflection of current market conditions, with prices for the better quality larger goods remaining strong throughout the year, though, during the latter part of H2 2018, lower qualities and smaller sizes experienced price pressure, driven predominantly by a weakened Indian Rupee against the US Dollar. Demand at retail in both the US and China for luxury goods were reported to be strong overall in 2018, initial reports from the Chinese and US holiday retail season are generally positive, the Company stated.

Reid Mackie, the Company's Vice President of Diamond Marketing, commented, "We had a strong start to 2018 with price increases in most rough diamond categories. Low quality and smaller sized rough diamonds did experience price pressure during H2 2018, but our sales process attracted sufficient demand to achieve the selling of all our production for the year.  We expect to see more interest in the first quarter rough sales where the market is traditionally stronger."

Stuart Brown, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "From a production perspective 2018 was a good year for Mountain Province Diamonds where we achieved our expected tonnes mined and recovered a record amount of carats. Operationally, the mine has settled down and our expectation is that it will continue to perform at these levels in the future. So far in 2019, production has been positive."

Mountain Province Diamonds is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada's Northwest Territories.