Mountain Province reports strong year

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Jan. 23 reported its production and sales results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023 from its Gahcho Kué diamond mine in Northwest Territories, Canada, underscoring the slow recovery of the diamond sector in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Located about 280 kilometers (175 miles) northeast of Northwest Territories' capital city, Yellowknife, Gahcho Kué is a diamond mine owned and operated by a joint venture between De Beers Canada Inc. (51%) and Mountain Province Diamonds (49%).

Going into 2023, Gahcho Kué hosted 26 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 1.46 carats per metric ton (38 million carats).

The Gahcho Kué produced 5.56 million carats of diamond during 2023, which is at the lower edge of the guidance of 5.6 to 6.1 million carats set out at the first of the year.

The ability to hit the lower end of the annual guidance is largely attributable to the 1.57 million carats delivered during a strong fourth quarter.

"Q4 (fourth quarter) 2023 was the highest carat producing quarter of 2023," said Mountain Province Diamonds President and CEO Mark Wall. "The mid-year major shutdown of the processing facility contributed to this result by delivering an average H2 (second half) operating plant utilization rate of 84%, which was well above the average H1 2023 performance of 73%. We expect to carry this momentum into 2024 notwithstanding some expected seasonal reduction in performance numbers in the early months, due to cold weather."

The second half performance is despite having to shut down the mine for five days in mid-August due to a major wildfire that forced the evacuation of Yellowknife, which is the logistics hub for Gacho Kué.

With work ramped back up to business-as-usual, fourth quarter production saw a total of 9.8 million metric tons mined at Gahcho Kué, a 3% decrease from the 10.1 million metric tons mined in 2022. However, closing out the year, a total of 37 million metric tons were mined for 2023, a 9% increase from the 33.9 million from 2022.

Mountain Province reported 1.9 million metric tons of ore were mined during the fourth quarter, a 169% increase from the 705,924 metric tons of ore mined in 2022. Conversely, a total of 3.8 million metric tons of ore was mined for 2023, resulting in a 7% decrease from the 4.1 million metric tons of ore mined in 2022.

"Mining in Q4 2023 was also the best quarter of 2023 with approximately 9.8 million tonnes mined which was, in part, driven by improved haul truck availability, as a result of maintenance improvement initiatives," said Wall. "On the sales front, a finer assortment of goods held back from previous quarters were sold during Q4 2023," said the diamond CEO. "The addition of these goods in quarter sales resulted in a lower average value per carat sold in Q4 2023, relative to prior quarters."

Last year, Mountain Province sold approximately 2.7 million carats at an average value of C$121 (US$90) per carat for total proceeds of C$328.6 million (US$243.7 million). Compared to the similarly 2.7 million carats sold in 2022 at an average of C$146 (US$112) per carat and total proceeds of C$388.8 million (US$297.3 million), the hit the diamond market took for the year is apparent.

"Sales in the quarter were also impacted by the two-month moratorium on imports by the Indian diamond industry," added Wall. "This moratorium finished in mid-December 2023, during which we completed our final sale of 2023."