Canadian diamond miner Dominion Diamond Corp., which owns a 40 percent interest in the Diavik diamond mine, reports that for the 2013 calendar year, ended December 31, 2013, the miner's share of Diavik production remained flat at 2.89 million carats. Dominion, which also owns an 80 percent interest in the Ekati diamond mine, says that during the period from April 10, 2013, when the miner acquired the Ekati mine from BHP Billiton, to December 31, 2013, Dominion's share of total production came to 1.172 million carats.

Diavik Q4

Dominion says that it saw a "continuing strong performance" from Diavik during the fourth quarter of 2013, ended December 31, 2013. The mine, located in Canada's Northwest Territories, produced a total of 2.1 million carats during the quarter, up 10.5 percent year over year. Dominion's 40 percent share of production for the quarter totaled 826,000 carats. Rio Tinto owns the remaining 60 percent interest in the mine.

A new mine plan and budget for calendar 2014 is under final review by both Rio Tinto and Dominion. The plan foresees total Diavik diamond mine production of approximately 6.1 million carats for the year from the mining and processing of approximately 1.9 million tonnes of ore. Mining activities will be exclusively underground with approximately 700,000 tonnes expected to be sourced from A-154 North, approximately 800,000 tonnes from A-154 South and approximately 400,000 tonnes from A-418 kimberlite pipes.

Ekati Q4

During the fourth quarter of 2013, the Ekati diamond mine, also located in Canada's Northwest Territories, produced a total of 400,000 carats. Dominion's 80 percent share of production for the quarter totaled 367,000 carats. The miner says that activities through the calendar quarter continued to focus on ore production from the Fox open pit, and Koala and Koala North underground.

A new mine plan and budget for fiscal 2015 is under final review by Dominion. In fiscal 2015, the Ekati diamond mine expects to process a total of approximately 2.7 million tonnes from the mineral reserve and produce approximately 1.0 million carats.