Photo by: Dominion Diamond Corp
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian diamond producer Dominion Diamond Corp on Wednesday reported a profit for the three months ended July of $26.6-million, or $0.31 a share, compared with a net loss of $13.9-million, or $0.16 a share, in the prior-year period.
Consolidated sales from continuing operations were $277.3-million compared with $261.8-million a year earlier, resulting in an operating profit of $46.5-million compared with the previous period's operating profit of $15.7-million.
Dominion’s consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation from continuing operations was $109.6-million compared with $48.3-million in the comparable quarter of last year.
During the quarter, the precious gem producer reported that output from its two producing mines in Canada’s Northwest Territories was “substantially ahead of plan” owing to higher-than-expected grades and was boosted by operational improvements.
The Toronto-based miner explained that owing to unexpected higher grades coupled with operational improvements executed over the last ten months at its Ekati process plant, the recovered carats rose by about 30% during the first half of the year, while process plant improvements were ongoing.
At Diavik, which Dominion jointly owns with 60%-stakeholder Rio Tinto, ore processing averaged 29% ahead of plan during the three-month period and 23% ahead of plan for the first half of the company’s financial year, mainly owing to improved mining rates and equipment availability.
For the quarter, Dominion reported a 5.9% rise in rough diamond sales year-over-year to $277.3-million. The company sold 1.511-million carats, up almost 16% when compared with a year earlier.
Dominion added that average rough diamond prices rose 8% since January.
The company's output from Ekati swelled to 802 000 ct compared with 483 000 ct a year earlier, while at Diavik Dominion's 40% share of output increased 44.5% to 870 000 ct.
The diamond miner excluded $10.5-million in sales of rough diamonds from Ekati's Misery satellite pipes, saying that it now expected Misery to contribute to commercial production from September 1.
Dominion’s TSX-listed stock on Wednesday closed C$0.08 higher at C$14.61 apiece.