Industria
Mountain Province Diamonds Announces Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2024 Results
All figures are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted and are unaudited.
2024 was a challenging year for the diamond industry, with polished and rough diamond prices impacted by reduced Chinese domestic demand and the uncertainty surrounding higher volumes of cheaper, lab grown diamonds. Rough diamond production and, by extension, sales volumes were curtailed by the major diamond producers providing support through the diamond pipeline. Though rough diamond market confidence remained subdued at the end of 2024, the retail market for diamond jewellery over the holidays showed bright spots with some high-end, luxury jewellery brands reporting strong results. In 2025, low rough diamond supply levels appear to be supporting equilibrium with downstream polished demand for natural diamonds and we are currently seeing a notable improvement in the overall sentiment in the market."
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"2024 was a year of significant safety improvement, processing records, and cost control, with the overlay of a very challenging diamond market. On safety, a 60% improvement in Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate compared to 2023 is an excellent result. Safety continues to be an area of focus for further improvement.
The project to stabilize and improve the processing plant was started in late 2022 and completed late in 2023. In 2024 3.63 million tonnes of ore were processed, the best performance ever at the facility, noting that in 2021 3.08 million tonnes were treated, in 2022 3.1 million tonnes and in 2023 3.25 million tonnes.
Ore tonnes mined in 2024 were 5.38 million tonnes, which was above the guidance range of 4.1mt to 4.6mt while the grade of ore that was treated was lower than anticipated in early Q2 2024. The higher processing plant throughput rate was the main factor in achieving production at the top of our guidance range of 4.66 million carats against our guidance range of 4.2 to 4.7 million carats.
Cash costs of production, including capitalized stripping costs of $117 per tonne treated (2023: $129 per tonne) was achieved despite the inflationary cost environment.
The challenge for the Company in 2024 was the diamond market, which was in a down-cycle, resulting in the Company's average annual realized price of $98 per carat versus a 2023 realized price of $121 per carat.
As per our recently updated Technical Report, 2025 carat production will be similar to 2024
H1 2025 is particularly challenging period as we are primarily processing ore from low grade stockpiles. The mining to reach the high grade NEX orebody ("NEX") in progressing to plan and we expect to be in NEX towards the end of Q2 2025. It should be noted that because of the lag between production and sales we will not see the benefit of this improved production, in terms of improved sales revenue, until Q4 2025. 2026 is expected to be a materially higher production and sales year as we have the benefit of a full year of production and sales from the NEX.
Subsequent to the year end, the company recently announced the closing of a significant refinancing transaction, which has addressed a number of material issues for the Company including the bonds that were due to expire at the end of 2025. With this refinancing, together with other liquidity measures that the company is currently advancing, the company will be much better positioned as we head towards a significantly higher production year in 2026."
The following table summarizes the key operating statistics for Q4 2024 and FY 2024, and the previous year, at the Gahcho Kué Mine.
The Company will host its quarterly conference call on Thursday, March 27th, 2025 at 11:00am ET .
Date of call: 03/27/2025
Time of call: 11:00 Eastern Time
Expected Duration: 60 minutes
Webcast Link: https://app.webinar.net/k3la74yGYO6
Participant Toll-Free Dial-In Number: (+1) 888-699-1199
Participant International Dial-In Number: (+1) 416-945-7677
A replay of the webcast and audio call will be available on the Company's website.
This news release refers to the terms "Cash costs of production per tonne of ore processed" and "Cash costs of production per carat recovered," both including and net of capitalized stripping costs and "Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes Depreciation and Amortization (Adjusted EBITDA)" and "Adjusted EBITDA Margin." Each of these is a non-IFRS performance measure and is referenced to provide investors with information about the measures used by management to monitor performance. These measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. They do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers.
Cash costs of production per tonne of ore processed and cash costs of production per carat recovered are used by management to analyze the actual cash costs associated with processing the ore, and for each recovered carat. Differences from production costs reported within cost of sales are attributed to the amount of production cost included in ore stockpile and rough diamond inventories.
Adjusted EBITDA is used by management to analyze the operational cash flows of the Company, as compared to the net income for accounting purposes. It is also a measure which is defined in the Notes documents. Adjusted EBITDA margin is used by management to analyze the operational margin % on cash flows of the Company.
The following table provides a reconciliation of the Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin with the net (loss) income on the consolidated statements of comprehensive (loss) income:
The following table provides a reconciliation of the cash costs of production per tonne of ore processed and per carat recovered and the production costs reported within cost of sales on the consolidated statements of comprehensive (loss) income:
is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada's Northwest Territories . The Gahcho Kué Joint Venture property consists of several kimberlites that are actively being mined, developed, and explored for future development. The Company also controls more than 113,000 hectares of highly prospective mineral claims and leases surrounding the Gahcho Kué Mine that include an Indicated mineral resource for the Kelvin kimberlite and Inferred mineral resources for the Faraday kimberlites. Kelvin is estimated to contain 13.62 million carats (Mct) in 8.50 million tonnes (Mt) at a grade of 1.60 carats/tonne and value of US$63 /carat, at February 2019 . Faraday 2 is estimated to contain 5.45Mct in 2.07Mt at a grade of 2.63 carats/tonne and value of US$140 /ct, at February 2019 . Faraday 1-3 is estimated to contain 1.90Mct in 1.87Mt at a grade of 1.04 carats/tonne and value of US$75 /carat, at February 2019 . All resource estimations are based on a 1mm diamond size bottom cut-off.
The disclosure in this news release of scientific and technical information regarding Mountain Province's mineral properties has been reviewed and approved by Tom McCandless , Ph.D., P. Geo and Tysen Hantelmann , P.Eng., Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Mark Wall , President and CEO, 161 Bay Street, Suite 1410, Toronto , Ontario M5J 2S1, Phone: (416) 361-3562, E-mail: info@mountainprovince.com
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