Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. is "pleased" with the valuation of the diamonds extracted during exploration at the Gahco Kue Project in northwest Canada, the results of which were released last week.



A parcel of diamonds weighing a total of 8243.56 carats was recovered, whose total value was $1,105,161 – a per carat price of $134.06. WWW International Diamond Consultants Ltd. conducted the valuation.

WWW's report stated that the samples taken from both the Tuzo and 5034 East kimberlites at Gahcho Kue had contained one large diamond of a high value. The diamond from the Tuzo kimberlite weighed 25.14 carats with a per carat price of $17,000 and the 5034 East weighed 9.90 carats and was assigned a per carat price of $15,000.

The WWW report said that finding such large diamond supply in samples of the size extracted at Gahcho Kue was "encouraging" and noted that if such large diamonds were discovered as frequently throughout the project, then the average prices would tend to be high.

Mountain Province President and CEO Patrick Evans said the diamond company was happy with the valuation, which indicated that the sample taken was "statistically robust" and that prices for rough diamonds were rising.

Evans added that in the company's experience, diamond mining often discovered larger numbers of high-value diamonds and that thus far, in addition to the stones mentioned in the WWW report, the samples taken at Gahcho Kue kimberlites had included several diamonds weighing between 4.9 and 8.7 carats.

"The presence of coarser diamonds is an important driver of overall diamond value at Gahcho Kue," Evans said.

The Gahcho Kue diamond resource development project, one of the world's largest, consists of a cluster of kimberlites, three of which have an indicated resource (1.00mm cut-off) of approximately 30.2 million tons grading at 1.67 carats per ton (approximately 50.5 million carats) and an inferred resource (1.00mm cut-off) of approximately 6 million tons grading at 1.73 carats per ton (approximately 10.3 million carats).