The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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Chairman: Jonathan Comerford
President and CEO: Patrick Evans
Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. is an exploration company hoping to transition to diamond miner upon a 2016 start-up at the Gahcho Kué project located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
Gahcho Kué, a joint venture between De Beers Canada (51 percent) and Mountain Province Diamonds (49 percent), is anticipated to produce 53.4 million carats of diamonds over a 12-year mine-life, according to an updated feasibility study released in April.
Capital needed to complete construction of the mine is estimated at C$858.5 million (including a contingency of C$75.6 million).
According to the updated study, mining Gahcho Kué will produce an after-tax internal rate of return of 32.6 percent (excluding sunk costs) and a net present value (10 percent discount) of C$1 billion.
On Sept. 25, the Gahcho Kué partners received a Type A water license for the project, which rounds out the permits needed to develop the project.
Major construction is expected to be complete by 2016, followed by plant commissioning in mid-2016 and commercial production targeted for the end of January 2017.
While pushing ahead with development, the partners continue to explore the kimberlites at Gahcho Kué.
The project covers four a cluster of four main kimberlite pipes - 5034, Hearne, Tuzo and Telsa.
Three of these - 5034, Hearne and Tuzo - contain 35.4 million tons of probable reserves averaging 1.57 carats per ton for 55.5 million carats of diamonds.
Roughly 20.6 million carats are contained in Tuzo.
Expanding this kimberlite to depth has been the recent focus of exploration.
In July 2013, Mountain Province released an updated NI 43-101 resource estimate for Gahcho Kué that incorporated the results of 2012 drilling that targeted the Tuzo pipe from a depth of 300-360 meters.
Based on the results of this drilling Tuzo Deep was upgraded from an inferred to indicated resource, extending the indicated resource from surface to a depth 360 meters.
In addition, the 2012 Tuzo Deep drilling resulted in the declaration of an inferred resource from a depth of 360-564 meters below surface.
The recently completed 2014 Tuzo Deep drill program was designed to test the kimberlite to a depth of roughly 750 meters.
This drilling tapped kimberlite to a depth of 743 meters, where the kimberlite appears to plunge to the northeast.
Core recovered from the program is being processed at the Geoanalytical Laboratories Diamond Services of the Saskatchewan Research Council.
Based on the results, the Gahcho Kué joint venture will decide the next steps at Tuzo Deep.
All the pipes remain open to depth.
In addition to Tazo deep, the partners targeted at least 15 geophysical targets with exploration drilling.
Cash and short-term deposits: C$59.3 million (June 30, 2014)
Working capital: C$40.3 million (June 30, 2014)
Market capitalization: C$632.5 million (Oct. 4, 2014)
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