Mountain Province Diamonds has confirmed that the first sale of the Gahcho Kué mine’s rough stones is expected to take place in the fourth quarter.
Initial sales from the Northwest Territories-based mine will be of “pre-commercial” production, a label that will stick until the mine achieves 70 per cent of its capacity. Sales will then take place approximately every five weeks.
Patrick Evans, the corporation’s president and CEO, told Rapaport that the mine’s rough diamond output will be around 1 million carats by the end of the year. Mountain Province owns 49 per cent of the mine and will receive that proportion of Gahcho Kué’s run-of-mine production, while 51 per cent owner De Beers will receive the rest.
