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Despite production levels that were lower than expected, Stornoway Diamond Corporation has reason to remain optimistic about its first-quarter results for 2018. (The company is the owner of the Renard Mine, the first producing diamond mine in Québec.)
“The first quarter saw strong performance for Stornoway in sales and pricing, with successively higher prices at each of our three sales reflecting an improved size and quality mix,” said Matt Manson, Stornoway’s CEO.
Between October and January, Stornoway sold 399,135 carats of diamonds at an average price of $141 per carat, adding up to gross proceeds of $56.4 million. In total, 285,851 carats were produced from processing 562,520 tonnes of ore.
Stornoway attributes the lower production to numerous factors, including extreme weather, unsafe working conditions, and the transition from open-pit to underground mining.
While the lower amount of processed ore naturally meant lower carat recoveries, the quarter was nonetheless earmarked by a significant sale. Stornoway sold a 37-carat, Type IIa, D-colour, internally flawless diamond for US$1.3 million—a record high price for an individual stone from the Renard project.
The quarter’s end was also followed by a notable bright spot: the recovery of a 189-carat diamond.
“To our knowledge, this is one of the largest diamonds ever reported recovered in Canada since diamond mining began in 1998,” said Manson.
The largest gem-quality diamond reported recovered in Canada prior to this was the 187.7-carat Foxfire Diamond, found at Diavik in 2015.
