Mountain Province Diamonds Results of Second Diamond Sale of 2018 and Confirmation of Dividend Objective
TORONTO and NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Shares Issued and Outstanding: 160,253,501
TSX and NASDAQ: MPVD
Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. ("Mountain Province", the "Company") (TSX and NASDAQ: MPVD) today announces the results of its recently completed second diamond sale of 2018. This sale yielded a realized value per carat of US$142, the highest achieved by Mountain Province in any tender sale to date, with total proceeds of US$25.1 million on approximately 177,000 carats sold.
The results of the second tender sale, with preceding sale results for comparative context, are summarized as follows:
2018 2018 2017-Q1 2017-Q2 2017-Q3 2017-Q4 Feb Mar Sales 1-3 Sales 4-5 Sales 6-7 Sales 8-10 Sale 1 Sale 2 Tender Sale Proceeds (USD million) 37.7 33.8 48.0 59.3 27.3 25.1 Carats Sold ('000s) 522 370 753 1,005 351 177[3] Value per Carat (USD)[1] 72 91 64 59 78 142 Normalized Value per Carat (USD)[2] 72 79 78 66 85[4] 76[5] [1] Diamonds sold at individual sale events will not directly reflect run-of-mine production from specific processing periods. The timing of the sale of some goods may be accelerated or deferred for tactical marketing purposes. Realized average value per carat is also impacted by the binary nature of the fancies and specials bidding process within each production split, conducted approximately every five weeks with the Company's joint venture partner, De Beers Canada Inc. The winning party of each fancies and specials bid then markets 100% of those diamonds. [2] Normalized to adjust for goods accelerated or deferred, and to include fancies and specials acquired through bid by De Beers Canada Inc. [3] For 2018, due to scheduling logistics there will only be nine production splits. The first split occurred in early February and is supplying the bulk of the goods offered in both of Sales 2 and 3 of 2018. Carat volumes in these two sales will accordingly be lower than typical, with the balance to be caught up in subsequent 2018 sales. There will still be a total of ten tender sales in 2018. [4] Updated for actual prices realized on goods deferred to 2018 Sale 2. [5] Provisional, to be finalized with results of Sale 3.