Business

Sales drop at Dermot Desmond’s Canadian diamond miner

Mountain Province Diamonds saw sales fall by more than $50m last year

Mountain Province Diamonds has endured a difficult period due in large part to weakness in the price of diamonds, and Dermot Desmond has stepped in on several occasions to provide it with financial backing. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

Barry J Whyte
Wed Jan 24 2024 - 15:14

Sales at Dermot Desmond’s Canadian diamond mining company dropped by more than $50 million (€45.8 million) in 2023, as diamond prices fell from an average of $112 per carat to about $90 per carat.

The latest results for Mountain Province Diamonds, which is heavily backed by Mr Desmond, show it had total sales of $243.7 million for 2023, having sold 2.7 million carats.

That compared with full-year sales of $297.3 million in 2022, when it also sold 2.7 million carats.

In the final quarter of the year, according to the results, it sold 917,757 carats at an average price of $64 per carat, earning $58.9 million.

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In the final quarter of 2022, by comparison, it sold fewer carats – 757,830 carats – at a higher price of $94 per carat, resulting in $71.3 million in total sales.

During 2023, Mountain Province Diamonds mined 37.1 million tonnes of ore and wastes and recovered 5.5 million carats, compared with the previous year in which it mined 33.9 million tonnes and recovered 5.5 million carats.

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In a statement announcing the results Mark Wall, Mountain Province’s chief executive, said that during 2023 there had been “some expected seasonal reduction in performance numbers in the early months, due to cold weather”, but that the final quarter of the year had been its “highest producing quarter of 2023″. He said he expected the company “to carry this momentum into 2024″.

Mr Wall said that “on the sales front, a finer assortment of goods held back from previous quarters were sold during [the fourth quarter of] 2023″, which “resulted in a lower average value per carat sold in Q4 2023, relative to prior quarters”.

Another factor, he said, was the two-month moratorium on diamond imports by the diamond industry in India, which has since ended.

Mountain Province jointly owns the Gahcho Kué mine in Canada with diamond industry giant De Beers.

The company has endured a difficult period due in large part to a slump in the price of diamonds worldwide, and Mr Desmond has stepped in on several occasions to provide it with financial backing, often in the form of credit facilities. On one occasion during the Covid-19 pandemic he bought diamonds from the business when the traditional diamond markets were closed.

Mountain Province’s share price has fallen significantly in recent years. It currently trades at about 25 Canadian cents a share (17 cents), down from nearly 1.6 Canadian dollars a share in 2019.

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