Diamond miner Rio Tinto has announced that lower ore grades and processed volumes at its Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia dropped 16% (compared to the fourth quarter of 2016) to 3.02 million carats in the first quarter 2017. Year-on-year, this represents a drop of 11%, according to Gem Konnect.
Rio Tinto’s production at the Diavik mine in Canada was up 15% over the previous quarter to 1.14 million carats, “as lower ore throughput was offset by higher recovered grades”. According to the report, “the recovery comes after a slowdown at Diavik and production remains at the same level it was in the first quarter of 2016”.
Rio Tinto added that diamond production guidance for 2017 “remains unchanged at 19 to 24 million carats”.
