Currency Gains Boost Mountain Province Profit

RAPAPORT... Mountain Province's profit increased in the second quarter amid a stronger Canadian dollar that reduced its debt levels, it said Tuesday. Profit jumped 61% to CAD 10.3 million ($7.8 million) for thethree months ending June 30, as it recorded exchange-rate gains of CAD 7.5million ($5.6 million) due to the appreciation of the currency against its US counterpart. The Canada-based company pays its debt in US dollars. Revenue from the miner's Gahcho Ku?(C) deposit in Canada fell 7% to $71.7million, as the miner sold rough from the lower-quality portion of the mine. "[It] was always going to be a challenging year for [us],considering the lower-quality ore in the mining sequence," Mountain ProvinceCEO Stuart Brown explained. "The plant-processing enhancements andmodifications, in addition to all other operational optimization initiatives atthe mine, have allowed us to mitigate some of those challenges." Mountain Province sold 1.1 million carats at three tendersduring the second quarter, at an average price of $67 per carat.The miner sold 1.1 million carats during the same period the year before, at anaverage price of $69 per carat. "Despite a very difficult rough-diamond market, we have had asuccessful year so far, achieving all of our production targets, and havecompleted the first half of the year slightly ahead of our plan," Brown added."The company's diamond sales were also marginally ahead of expectations due toa better product mix, despite lower-quality and -grade ore feed." The rough-diamond market will continue to presentchallenges, with continued volatility in the near term, Mountain Provincenoted. However, the company expects to achieve the lower end of its productionforecast of 3.3 million to 3.45 million carats for its share of production. The company owns 49% of the Gahcho Ku?(C) mine, with De Beersholding the remaining 51%. Image: Ore crushing and processing at Gahcho Ku?(C). (Mountain Province)