Dominion Diamond’s Sales Slump 35% in Q3 2016
December 14, 15
(IDEX Online News) – Dominion Diamond Corporation has announced that third-quarter sales for fiscal 2016 dropped 35 percent to $145 million, down from $222.3 million a year previously.
Profits for the period totaled $4.1 million compared to $59.4 million in the same period a year previously. Profits for the nine months ended October 31, 2015 totaled $8 million compared to $117.7 million over the same period in the year prior.
The company said that the consolidated costs of sales and gross margins were affected by a combination of a drop in the value of production at the Ekati Mine in the second quarter of the year, and a cautious global market affecting rough diamond prices.
During the quarter, Dominion sold 480,000 carats from its 100-percent owned Ekati Mine, up from 458,000 in the same quarter a year previously. However, the average price per carat plummeted from $310 in second quarter fiscal 2015 to $184 this quarter – a slide of 40 percent.
At Diavik, in which the company has a 40-percent stake, Dominion sold 315,000 carats down from 695,000 carats in the same quarter a year previously – a 55-percent drop.
Consolidated sales for the third quarter totalled $145 million down from $222.3 million in the same quarter in the prior year, consisting of $88.2 million Ekati rough diamond sales (Q3 2015 – $141.9 million) and $56.9 million Diavik rough diamond sales (Q3 2015 – $80.4 million).
The company said that its mining operation results were subject to the seasonality of production at its mineral properties; the number of tenders during the quarter and rough diamond prices. The volume, size and quality distribution of rough diamonds is also a factor that can affect diamond prices
Dominion announced that as of October 31, it had approximately 1.9 million carats of rough diamond inventory available for sale, with an estimated market value of $155 million.