Canada’s Dominion Diamond Corporation, which holds interests in both the Diavik and Ekati mines in the Northwest Territories has issued updates on the following developments.

Diavik: The company reported that 1.67 mn cts of diamonds were recovered from 0.56 mn tonnes of ore processed during the quarter ended September 30, 2014, with cumulative yield for the calendar year now reaching 5.69 mn cts from 1.76 mn tonnes of ore processed. While the processing volumes and diamond recovery during the quarter ended September 30, 2014 is consistent with the same period in the previous year, the yield during the first three quarters has risen 10% on a 12% increase in the volumes of ore processed.

The company noted that improving availabilities, removing plant bottlenecks and increasing utilization of equipment contributed to “significant improvement in tonnage processed and carats recovered on a year-to-date basis” and “better than expected ore production”.

Dominion expects to exceed its targeted yield of 6.1 mn cts from 2.0 mn tonnes of ore mined and processed, and actually achieve a production of 6.5 mn cts while processing 2.2 mn tonnes of ore during 2014.

The company pays 40% of the Diavik mines capital and operating costs and receives 40 per cent of the mine’s diamond output. The mine is operated by Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc.

Ekati: Dominion has also completed its previously announced acquisition of the 8.889% participating interest in the Core Zone and an additional 6.53% participating interest in the Buffer Zone from C. Fipke Holdings Ltd. in the Ekati Diamond Mine. This takes Dominion’s share in the mine to 88.89% of the Core Zone and 65.3% interest in the Buffer Zone.

The base purchase price for the acquired Core Zone interest was US$42.2 million, plus purchase price adjustments of US$13.2 million for a total amount payable of US$55.4 million and the base purchase price for the acquired Buffer Zone interest was US$11.11 million plus purchase price adjustments of US$3.24 million, for a total amount paid in cash at closing of US$14.35 million.