Rio Tinto today released its production figures for the three months ended September 30, 2019, reporting a 7% decline in diamonds produced during the quarter and a 9% drop over the first nine months of the year. The figures were along expected lines as the company’s Argyle mine in Australia has entered the final few years of its life.

Giving details, the miner said that overall 4.55 million carats were produced during Q3 2019, dropping 7% below the 4.90 mn cts produced during the same period a year earlier. For the first nine months of the year, diamond production stood at 12.83 mn cts or 9% below the 9M 2018 level of 14.14 mn cts.

At Argyle, a 100% owned mine, carat production in the third quarter of 2019 stood at 3.56 mn cts or 7% lower than the 3.83 mn cts recovered in the same period in 2018. Rio Tinto said this was due to lower recovered grade, partially offset by stronger mining and processing rates. Over the first nine months of 2019, production at Argyle touched 9.64 mn cts (9M 2018: 10.86 mn cts).

At Diavik, Rio Tinto’s share (60%) of carats recovered in the third quarter at 0.99 mn cts was 7% lower than the 1.07 mn cts recovered in the third quarter of 2018 due to lower ore availability from both the underground and the A21 open pit. For the first nine months of 2019, Rio Tinto’s share of carats recovered at Diavik was 3.19 mn cts, slightly below the 3.28 mn cts share in the same period in 2018.

The Company said that diamond production guidance for 2019 remains between 15 and 17 million carats.