TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian precious gem producer Dominion Diamond Corp on Monday afternoon said that in 2014, it planned to produce about 7% fewer carats from the Diavik mine, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, while operating costs were expected to drop 16% as underground development at the site wound down.

In updating its mine plans for its two producing assets, the Diavik mine and its 80% stake in the Ekati mine, Dominion said in 2014 it expected to produce 5.97-million carats from Diavik's three active kimberlite ‎pipes, namely the A-154 South, A-154 North and A-418 pipes.

Operating costs were expected to total C$408-million, as the company ramped up ore output.

Dominion said the updated mine plan, based on Diavik’s current reserves, could support mining until 2023, after which it would spend the majority of the $188-million in reclamation costs between 2022 and 2025, despite the comprehensive reclamation plan only expected to be complete by 2030.

Based on fourth-quarter diamond sales, Dominion said the average price for diamonds from the A-154 North pipe was $180/ct, while at A-154 South the average price were $140/ct. The average price of rough diamonds recovered at A-418 was $100/ct and the average price of goods recovered from its reprocessed plant rejects was ‎‎$50/ct.

At the Ekati mine, in which Dominion holds an 80% stake, the company expects to produce 1.22-million carats from the Fox, Misery, Pigeon and Lynx openpits, and the Koala and Koala North underground operations.

The updated Ekati mine plan provided for a mine life of six years.

Koala North is currently in production as a sublevel retreat underground operation and was expected to be fully complete later in the year. The pipe would be mined as a sublevel, inclined cave underground operation and was scheduled to finish in 2019.

Fox is operating as an openpit, and is scheduled to be depleted during the year.

Meanwhile, waste material and satellite kimberlite stripping were in progress at Misery openpit, which was scheduled to start production from the main kimberlite pipe in 2016. The resource is expected to be depleted by 2018.

Dominion would start stripping waste from the Pigeon openpit this year, and start mining in 2015. The deposit is expected to be finished by 2019.

Ekati's operating costs in 2014 were expected to reach about C$317-million, which included the development for the Misery, Pigeon and Lynx kimberlites.

Dominion expected Koala rough diamonds to sell for $375/ct, and Koala North's for $420/ct. The average expected price for rough recovered at Fox was $305/ct, and was $195/t for Pigeon, with Lynx expected to reach $225/ct.

Rough from the Misery deposit was expected to fetch $105/ct and Misery south and south-west between $90/ct to $100/ct. The average price of rough recovered from Ekati's reprocessed plant discards was ‎‎between $65/ct and $120/ct.

ONLINE POLISHED PLATFORM?

Dominion last week told news agency Bloomberg that it planned to launch an online sales platform for polished diamonds for its Canadian mines. The company said it believed such an initiative could help it gain some understanding of the polished diamond markets, after it sold its luxury goods brand Harry Winston to Swatch Group last year.

The website would be a business-to-business platform.

Dominion diamond also planned to certify its Canadian diamonds under the CanadaMark trademark marketing initiative, which it gained through buying BHP Billiton’s 80% stake in the Ekati mine, in Canada.

Bloomberg reported that the company, under the “transformative” leadership of chairperson and CEO Robert Gannicott, was looking at revitalising the trademark, which could result in the polished-sales platform.