Releasing its financial and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. reported a dip in both carats recovered and sales, but said that  it had achieved production targets and was ahead of plan at the end of the first half of the year despite a “very difficult rough diamond market”.

Giving details, Mountain Province said that in Q2 it recovered 1,730,147 carats at an average grade of 1.96 carats per tonne, 10% lower than comparable quarter (Q2 2018: 1,930,500 carats at 2.15 carats per tonne), which was mainly a function of mining lower grade ore and ongoing plant modifications which resulted in the removal of the very small, lowest value diamonds from the recovery process further contributing to fewer carats recovered.

During the quarter, 1,077,730 carats were sold at an average value of C$ 89 per carat (US$ 67 per carat) for total proceeds of C$ 95.8 million (US$ 71.7 million) in comparison to 1,113,724 carats sold at an average value of C$ 89 per carat (US$ 69 per carat) for total proceeds of C$ 99.1 million (US$ 76.8 million) in Q2 2018.

In the first six months of 2019, the Company recovered 3,314,699 carats at an average grade of 1.89 carats per tonne, 7% and 10% lower than in the comparable period respectively (H1 2018: 3,571,510 carats and 2.12 carats per tonne).

For H1 2019, total sales revenue stood at C$ 156 million (US$ 118 million) compared to C$ 165 million in 2018 (US$ 129 million) at an average realised value of C$ 91 per carat (US$ 68) 2018: C$ 101 per carat (US$ 79).

Overall, the Company completed five sales during H1 2019 where it saw continued pressure on prices in the smaller, cheaper rough categories.  Prices for the larger, better-quality product categories that contribute the majority of the Company's sales value remained stable through the second quarter after gains made earlier in the year.

Mountain Province President and CEO Stuart Brown commented: "Despite a very difficult rough diamond market we have had a successful year so far, achieving all of our production targets and have completed the first half of the year slightly ahead of our plan.  Our financial results are also slightly ahead of our expectations for the first half supported by the ongoing success of our 2019 strategic milestones and operational initiatives put in place prior to the start of the year.” 

He added, “The Company's diamond sales were also marginally ahead of expectations due to a better product mix, and despite lower quality and grade ore feed. The rough diamond market continues to present challenges, and we expect to see continued volatility in the market for rough diamonds in the near term.  We will focus our efforts to maintain our production at the lower end of our cost guidance and will continue to improve the cash generated at every opportunity.  We remain on track to achieve our 2019 forecast of 3.3 – 3.45 million carats (our 49% share of the full production) recovered."