Mountain Province Reports $56m Loss in Q4
April 02, 24
(IDEX Online) - Mountain Province Diamonds (MPD) reported a fourth quarter loss of US$55.7m in what it described as a "softening market".
The Toronto-based miner said it had cut back on discretionary spending at the Gahcho Kue mine in Northwest Territories, Canada, which it operates as a joint venture with De Beers.
Losses for FY 2023 were US$32.3m the company said yesterday (1 April) in its Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2023 Results.
Production slipped slightly during the three months to 31 December 2023 to 1,572,696 carats (MPD's 49 per cent share was 770,621 carats), a 3 per cent reduction.
Sales for the full year were 2,718,000 carats, 2 per cent up on 2023, but average price per carat fell 17 per cent to $121.
President and CEO Mark Wall said: "Coming from record 2022 where multiple Company financial records were broken, 2023 saw reduced revenues primarily due to a softening market.
"Despite the challenging market in H2, during 2023 the Company paid down US$18 million in senior secured second lien notes."
He said 2024 would be a lower production year due to the effects of mine sequencing and grade profile changes, which he said were normal occurrences in open pit diamond mining.
Production guidance for the year remains 4.2m to 4.7m for the joint venture (2.3m to 2.6m carats for MPD). Overall production in 2023 was 5.6m carats.
Pic shows processing plant at Gahcho Kue.