Stornoway Diamond Corporation recently announced a revised construction schedule for its Renard Diamond Project along with  a  reduction in the  forecast  cost  to completion. “Re-baselining of the project’s schedule and capital cost forecasts has been made possible following several months of construction progress achieved consistently ahead of plan, and has been undertaken as part of the revised mine planning for Renard which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year,” the Company said.

Under the revised plan, the first ore delivery to the Renard diamond process plant has   been scheduled for the end of September 2016, with commercial production (60% of plant capacity achieved over 30 days) to be achieved by December 31, 2016. “This is a 5 month improvement on the previous schedule, which assumed commercial production in the second quarter of 2017,” Stornoway noted.

“The estimated capital cost to complete for the project has been adjusted downwards from C$811.0 million to C$775.4 million, reflecting savings in general and administrative expenses and capitalised operating expenses,” the mining Company  said. “The new cost forecast includes all contingencies, escalation allowances, and working capital up to the date of commercial production.”

Matt Manson, President and CEO, commented “This improvement in our development schedule at Renard has been made possible by the excellent construction environment we are enjoying in Québec and the efficient progress made by our team. The reduced cost to complete adds further strength to our balance sheet, already boosted by the ongoing F/X gains on the portion of our project financing that was funded or committed in US$. Future progress reporting at Renard will be with reference to these re-baselined schedule and cost targets.”

The Company explained that as of December 31st, 2015, prior to the re-baselining exercise, “overall construction at the project stood at 63.3% compared to a plan of 59.6%, with engineering substantially complete at 99.0%”.

The Company is currently preparing an updated mine plan for the Renard Project, which is expected to be released early in the second quarter of this year. “This plan will incorporate the re-baselined schedule and capital cost for the construction of the project, and will include revised guidance on production profile, mine life, operating costs, sustaining capital and Mineral Reserves. This work is currently ongoing,” Stornoway said.