Dominion Diamond Corporation has reported weakened third-quarter sales and lower prices for diamonds sold from its Ekati and Diavik mines.
The Yellowknife-based company’s third-quarter results revealed diamond sales of $145 million US, down from $222.5 million US in the same period of last year. By volume, sales fell to 795,000 carats, dropping 31 per cent.
Brooke Clements, past president of the North-West Territories (NTW) and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, notes that low diamond prices strongly affect the NWT government.
“Right now, there’s a little bit of a supply glut, at the polished end, and diamond prices are down from where they are last year,” he explains. “That will definitely lower the royalty revenue that the Government of Northwest Territories gets under the devolution agreement. I would imagine when they made their budgets last year, they were counting on higher diamond prices. So it just affects everybody’s ability to do the things they want to do.” CJ
