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

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Feb. 6 reported the recovery of a 67.87 carat gem quality diamond during the ramp-up of production at the Gahcho Kué Mine.

This is the largest gem quality diamond recovered so far at this newest mine in the Northwest Territories.

"The presence of large gem quality diamonds at Gahcho Kué was established during the bulk sampling when a 25.13 carat octahedron was recovered," reminded Mountain Province President and CEO Patrick Evans.

"The recovery of a 67.87 carat gem quality diamond during production ramp-up is very encouraging." A joint venture between De Beers (51 percent) and Mountain Province Diamonds (49 percent), the Gahcho Kué Mine is expected to produce some 54 million carats of rough diamonds from about 35 million metric tons of scheduled material over a 12-year lifetime.

Ramp-up to commercial production began at the beginning of August and through the end of 2016 the mine had produced 862,000 carats of diamonds from 515,000 metric tons of kimberlite averaging 1.67 carats per metric ton.

Mountain Province reports that despite extremely cold temperatures in December causing some issues with the conveyor system, the mine is nearing commercial production.

"Following some disruptions due to conveyor systems winterization issues, the production ramp-up at Gahcho Kué is once again progressing well and the mine is on track to achieve commercial production on schedule during the current quarter," said Evans.

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Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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