Dominion Diamond Corporation reported that its  Diavik Diamond Mine production for the fourth calendar quarter of 2014 was down by 25 %.

“Processing volumes in the fourth calendar quarter were 5% lower than the same quarter of the prior year due to the improved processing rates in prior quarters fully exhausting the stockpiled ore by the third calendar quarter,” the company said.  “This resulted in only run of mine ore being processed in the fourth quarter.” A total of 0.51 million tonnes of ore was processed in Q4 2014 as compared to 0.54 million tonnes in the same period of the previous year.

Carats recovered in the Q4 2014  were 25% lower than the comparable quarter of the prior year “as a result of lower realised grades in all three ore bodies and a higher proportion of the lower grade A154 North ore being processed in the fourth calendar quarter of 2014 than in the comparable calendar quarter of 2013” the company reported.

A new mine plan and budget for calendar 2015 has been approved by Rio Tinto plc and the Dominion Diamond Corp.

“The plan for calendar 2015 foresees Diavik Diamond Mine production of approximately 6.7 million carats from the mining and processing of approximately 2.1 million tonnes of ore,” reported the company . “Mining activities will be exclusively underground with approximately 0.8 million tonnes expected to be sourced from A-154 North, approximately 0.4 million tonnes from A-154 South and approximately 0.9 million tonnes from A-418.  In addition to the 6.7 million carats produced from run of mine ore, there will be production from Coarse Ore Rejects (COR). This additional production is not included in the Company's ore reserves, and is therefore incremental. Based on historical recovery rates, the tonnage of this material that is planned to be processed during calendar 2015 would produce 0.3 million carats from COR.”

The company also said that based on the its sales during the fourth calendar quarter of 2014 and the current diamond recovery profile of the Diavik processing plant, it has modeled the approximate rough diamond price per carat for each of the ore types as below: