Mining major Rio Tinto recorded a 37% drop in diamond output to 757,000 carats for the third quarter of 2023 on a year-on-year basis due to ongoing construction activity at its fully owned Diavik mine in Canada. Diamond output at Diavik was 22% lower than the preceding Q2 2023.
Rio Tinto’s diamond output for the January to September 2023 period declined 20% to 2.68 million carats compared to 3.33 million carats registered in the same nine-month period in 2022.
“At Diavik, our share of carats was 36% lower than the third quarter of 2022 due to the completion of an underground pipe and area of the open pit during the prior period,” the company said.