North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. provided its first quarterly production report Oct. 24 for the new Gahcho Kué diamond mine in the Northwest Territories. From the Aug. 1 start of ramp-up production to Sept. 30, the plant produced 198,000 carats of diamonds from roughly 130,000 metric tons of ore.

Mountain Province, which holds a 49 percent joint venture interest in Gahcho Kué, owns roughly 97,000 carats from the quarterly production. Its partner in the mine, De Beers Canada, received the balance.

The first sale of Mountain Province's share of the run-of-mine production will take place in January and approximately every five weeks thereafter.

The joint venture partners bid for the production of fancy colored and special diamonds exceeding 10.8 carats. The bid for September production of fancies and specials was won by Mountain Province.

Included in the September parcel of fancy and special diamonds from the September production are a 50.25 carat gem quality diamond and three fancy yellow diamonds weighing between three and five carats. These diamonds will be included in Mountain Province's January sale, to be held in Antwerp, Belgium.

"Mining and processing continues to progress well and Gahcho Kué remains on track to achieve commercial production in early 2017," said Mountain Province President and CEO Patrick Evans.

-SHANE LASLEY