Sales of rough from Mountain Province’s Gahcho Kué mine in Canada dropped in the first quarter amid slow demand and a smaller volume of diamonds on offer.
Diamond sales fell 54% year on year to $30.7 million for the three months that ended March 31, Mountain Province said last week. Sales volume slid 51% to 426,268 carats, while the average price improved 2.9% to $72 per carat.
The decrease is the result of a prolonged slowdown in the diamond market amid economic challenges and oversupply in the midstream. Weakened diamond demand in China, one of the larger consumer markets for jewelry, has also contributed to the slump. Additionally, sales suffered due to a lower volume of available rough, as the company did not mine any ore during the period, processing only stockpiled goods with lower grades. The miner is spending its time instead trying to access the NEX orebody, which contains higher-grade ore, but requires waste stripping at the deposit to be reached.
Output plunged 40% to 762,978 carats during the period even as the company processed 15% more ore than it did a year before. The ore grade dropped 48%, the miner noted. Mountain Province’s 49% share of production was 373,859 carats. De Beers owns the remaining 51% stake.
The company is working on getting shareholder approval for loans it has taken from Dunebridge Worldwide that will help it keep its business afloat. Without consent for the funding, “the company’s future as a going concern will be in serious doubt,” Mountain Province noted.
“The first quarter is historically a challenging quarter for the operations,” said Mountain Province CEO Mark Wall. “The first half of 2025 is focused exclusively on stripping waste to reach the important high-grade NEX ore body, and the improvements in mining performance have been a key focus area. As we were treating low-grade stockpiles while we strip waste to the NEX ore body we expected lower grades, although the stockpile grades performed below modeled grade.”
The company will try to find and process stockpiled ore with the best diamond grade in the second quarter, as it continues to work on accessing the NEX ore body. It believes it will be able to mine from that area at the end of June, it added.
Image: Trucks hauling ore at the Gahcho Kué mine. (Mountain Province)
