Driven by a significant rise in carat production at Argyle due to improved plant availability, as well as a recovery in plant throughput at Diavik during the three months ended June 30, 2018, Rio Tinto reported a 9% rise in diamond production for the first half of 2018.

Releasing its production update for the second quarter, the mining company said that it produced 9.2 million carats during the first six months of the year, up 9% over the 8.5 mn cts produced during the comparative period a year earlier.

Production at the Argyle mine in Australia during Q2 rose 8% y-oy to 3.48 mn cts mainly on account of an increase in tonnes processed following improved plant availability, which translated into a 13% rise in production over the first half of 2018 to 7.03 mn cts.

At the Diavik Diamond mine in Canada, Rio Tinto’s share of production (60%) was up 3% y-o-y during Q2 to 1.15 mn cts which resulted in H1 production reaching 2.21 mn cts, a decline of 2% over the 2.26 mn cts reported in the same period a year earlier. Rio Tinto said the Q2 rise was on account of higher plant throughput.

The company also stated that development of the A21 project at Diavik is ahead of schedule with first ore uncovered in March and the mine is expected to be at full production capacity during the fourth quarter of 2018.

Diamond production guidance for 2018 continues to be between 17 and 20 million carats, the miner said.