Mountain Province, which owns 49% of the the Gahcho Kué mine in the Northwest Territories in Canada, raked in $24.2 million in its latest diamond sale on October 5, Mining Weekly reports. The miner sold 366,505 carats ($66 per carat on average) and said that the sale was “in line with its expectations”.
Mountain Province said it received “strong bids” for its better quality larger diamonds, adding that the average price for lower quality diamonds declined to “mid-single digits, driven by the rapid weakening of the Indian rupee against the US dollar”.
Mountain Province president and CEO Stuart Brown commented: “The eighth sale of the year totalling $24.2 million was a good result considering the current market and time of the year and we did well to sell all our categories at current best market prices. We are encouraged to see positive diamond jewellery retail sales and we believe that with a positive retail selling season we will see better demand for rough diamonds in the near future”.
