Mountain Province Prices Jump 18%

RAPAPORT... Rough prices at Mountain Province surged in the second quarter as strong retail sales and steady polished trading drove demand for its goods.The miner reported a price increase of around 18% on a like-for-like basis compared with the first quarter. Sales rose 23% to $52.6 million for the period versus $42.7 million in the first quarter, with volume climbing 19% to 718,549 carats, the company said Thursday. The average price advanced 3% quarter on quarter to $73 per carat."Demand in the rough-diamond market is robust, supported by polished-diamond price increases and buoyant jewelry retail sales in the US and China," Mountain Province noted. "At our most recent sale held over the past two weeks in Antwerp, Belgium, the company saw high demand and increased customer interest across all rough-diamond categories."Mountain Province had to cancel its May sale because of a Covid-19 outbreak at its Gahcho Ku?(C) mine in Canada. Still, circumstances were better than a year earlier, when the miner held none of its usual sales events for the quarter because of the pandemic.Revenue for the second quarter of 2020 totaled $25 million, most of which came from a special agreement with shareholder Dunebridge Worldwide. That deal called for the miner to sell its rough to Dunebridge at the low prices that existed at the time and receive a share of the profit when the investor sold the goods.During the second quarter of this year, Dunebridge completed the sale of all the diamonds it had bought, with Mountain Province receiving a profit share of CAD 10.4 million ($8.6 million).Image: The Gahcho Ku?(C) mine. (Mountain Province)