Stornoway Diamond Corporation released the production and sales results at the Renard Diamond Mine for the quarter ended September 30, 2017, reporting a 5% and 12% rise in carats produced and attributable grade over mine plan, even though ore processing was 6% lower.

The miner said that during this period it produced 442,154 carats from the processing of 506,381 tonnes of ore with an attributable grade of 87 carats per hundred tonnes, compared to a plan of 422,475 carats from 540,000 tonnes at 78 cpht.

It added that it had achieved an average processing rate of 5,957 tonnes per day excluding a 7 day scheduled annual maintenance shutdown in July as against the nameplate capacity of 6,000 tonnes per day at 78% utilisation of the plant.

During the quarter, it also completed two sales (2017 sales 6 and 7) with 438,632 carats sold for gross proceeds of C$ 51.6 million, at an average price of US$ 94 per carat (C$ 118 per carat).

Due to the correction of about 6-8% in rough prices there was a drop in the average price achieved per sale, Stornoway reported. While 151,135 carats were sold at an average price of US$ 101 per carat at the beginning of the quarter, the 7th and largest sale to date held in August, saw 287,4976 carats sold at an average price of US$ 90 per carat. It  said that given the outlook for the rough diamond market for the remainder of the year, it is likely that the average price per carat for 2017 will be below the guidance of US$ 100 to US$ 132 per carat.

Stornoway stated that the average pricing achieved was also partly impacted by the ongoing issues of diamond breakage in the process plant, which reduces the proportion of larger diamonds available for sale and influences the average quality assortment. The Company said that it is addressing this issue.

Matt Manson, President & CEO commented: “During the quarter we saw growth in carats sold, gross sales revenue, and average pricing compared to the first half of the year, despite a rough market correction at the end of the quarter which served to slow the rate of increase. At the process plant, we are achieving steady name-plate capacity in processing, and have broken ground on our new ore/waste sorting circuit that we expect will positively impact the quality of our diamond production and achieved pricing at sale.”