Reporting on the successful completion of the first diamond sale of 2018, Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. said the revenue of US$ 27.3 million was the highest result to date in total dollar terms. It added that this reflected “improved size distribution” of the lots offered and “robust demand” that pushed prices up by an average of approximately 7% as compared to the preceding sale in December 2017.

Mountain Province Diamonds is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada's Northwest Territories. 

Elaborating on the sale, the Company said that it achieved an average value per carat of US$ 78 at the January sale, or US$ 83 on a normalized basis.

The diamonds offered in this first sale of 2018 were sourced from the last production split of 2017, Mountain Province reported, adding that only half of the fancies and specials from the last production split of 2017 were offered in this sale, with the remainder deferred for inclusion in the upcoming second sale of 2018.

The Company also clarified that diamonds sold at individual sale events do not directly reflect run-of-mine production from specific processing periods, as sale of some goods may be accelerated or deferred for tactical marketing purposes.  Realized average value per carat is also impacted by the binary nature of the fancies and specials bidding process within each production split,  conducted approximately every five weeks with the Company's joint venture partner, De Beers Canada Inc.  The winning party of each fancies and specials bid then markets 100% of those diamonds.

Reid Mackie, the Company's Vice President Diamond Marketing, said "Our January sale broke all records in terms of revenue and customer activity.  More than 200 companies participated, with 140 placing bids and delivering our highest revenue figure to date.  Particularly promising is that all product areas saw healthy price increases, especially the large, special stone category which achieved both record prices per carat and the highest value individual stone sold by Mountain Province to date."

David Whittle, the Company's Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The results of this sale were driven not only by the quality of the diamonds on offer but stronger rough diamond prices generally, as we experienced an improvement in customer sentiment similar to that which has been reported by the industry generally.  We have experienced general rough diamond price increases of approximately 12% since October, supporting a view of improving market fundamentals.  Operationally, we note the strong plant throughput in January, representing exceptional performance in the heart of winter."