Mountain Province reported increased net losses for the latest quarter as prices keep on dropping in a “challenging market”.
The Canadian miner today (7 November) announced a net loss of $13.6m for the three months to 30 September, following on from a $4.7m loss in Q2 (all figures are in US dollars).
“In Q3 2024 our sales achieved 100 per cent sell-through with no unsold stock held at the end of September and a higher average selling price than the three preceding quarters,” said Reid Mackie, VP sales and marketing at Mountain Province.
The average price per carat was, however, down 21 per cent on a year ago – from $95 to $75.
The company sold a 679,599 carats were sold for $50.8m, compared to 478,653 carats in Q3 2023 for $45.3m. Year-on-year the number of carats sold was up almost 30 per cent, but revenue increased by just 12 per cent.
Adjusted EBITDA was $12.5m and loss from mine operations was $8m.
As for operations at the Gahcho Kue mine (pictured), the number of tonnes of ore treated increased 10 per cent year-on-year, but the number of carats recovered fell by 10 per cent.
CEO Mark Wall explained that this was “driven by planned lower grade in Q3 and unplanned lower grade in March and early Q2 of 2024”.
He said that while the diamond market had been disappointing, he was optimistic that the price environment would recover during 2025 and that it would be followed by a very strong production year in 2026.
The natural diamond industry needs coordinated and consistent marketing campaigns to counter declining demand, says Yoram Dvash, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB).
In an open letter he calls on every member of the industry to help create a five-year plan, rather than relying on “short-term initiatives when the situation is particularly dire”.
He acknowledges that De Beers and the Natural Diamond Council are both spending millions of dollars on campaigns with leading retailers, but says it’s not enough.
“I am concerned that this is too little and too late,” he says. “To be successful, campaigns need to be coordinated and to be consistent throughout the year.”
He says there hasn’t been a major generic marketing campaign for natural diamonds for almost 20 years, when De Beers halted its “A Diamond is Forever” promotion.
“An entire generation of consumers has come of age without having been exposed to promotional campaigns with positive messages about natural diamonds,” he says in a letter to all the WFDB’s 29 member bourses.
A 16.73 carat very light pink diamond is expected to sell for CHF 1.1m to CHF 1.8m ($1.3m to $2m) in Sotheby’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels Sale.
Another highlight of the sale, which features many colored diamonds, is a 1.44 carat fancy red diamond (the rarest of all diamond colors) from Australia’s iconic Argyle mine.
They’ll be offered for sale next week (13 November) in a live auction of 88 lots, including pieces by Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany, Bulgari and JAR, spanning 250 years of jewelry history.
The pink diamond is claw-set in a ring, VVS1-clarity, natural color with a brilliant cut. The red diamond is also claw-set in a ring, with a cut-cornered rectangular mixed cut, together with an Argyle mine presentation case.
“The sale is a celebration of exceptional craftsmanship, with signed jewels from the most esteemed makers of the 20th century,” says Sotheby’s. The sale also offers a number of coloured diamonds of outstanding quality and size, within the rarest of colors.”
India’s exports of polished diamonds suffered yet another big fall in September, down 22.9 per cent, according to the latest figures from the GJEPC (Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council).
That’s a marginally better performance than August, when year-on-year exports were down by 23.8 per cent. Between April and September total foreign sales fell 20.6 per cent (all figures in US dollars).
Actual monthly sales tell a different story from year-on-year decreases. Total foreign sales for September were $1.29bn, compared to $1.04bn in August and $908m in July.
Across the whole gems and jewelry industry in India, gross exports were $2.54bn, down 15.9 per cent year-on-year (compared to 22.9 per cent for polished diamonds).
Exports of polished lab growns – still a tiny minority of all diamond sales – were down 16.5 per cent to $111m.
A pair of fancy vivid orange-yellow diamond earrings sold for almost $8m at Christie’s Hong Kong.
They were the lead item in the Magnificent Jewels sale that raised just over $60m on 29 October.
The Oriental Sunrise earrings feature a pair of Type 1b oval mixed-cut diamonds – 12.20 carats (VVS2) and 11.96 carats (VS1) – surrounded by white shield and tapered baguette-cut diamonds, set in platinum and gold. The pre-sale estimate for the earrings was $6.4m to $10.3m.
Among other highlights was a necklace of 26 oval-shaped rubies (5.38 carat to 1.27 carat), some of them listed as “pigeon blood red” – with white pear and marquise-shaped diamonds, that sold for $6.4m.
A Cartier ring, set with a Type IIa 12.60-carat D-color, IF clarity round-cornered rectangular brilliant-cut Goloconda diamond, sold for $1.4m. The high estimate was $1.1m.
Chow Tai Fook (CTF), the jewelry chain with 7,500 stores across mainland China, posted a 21 per cent plunge in retail sales value (RSV) in the three months to 30 September, as gold prices hit an all-time high.
The Hong Kong-based company warned that interim profits for the half year to September could fall by 42 to 46 per cent.
Gold prices have broken multiple records in recent months and currently stand at just over $2,700 an ounce.
Central banks, particularly China’s, have been aggressively buying gold to diversify their reserves and reduce reliance on US dollars, thereby forcing the price up.
Before the gold surge CTF reported a record high revenue (up 18.5 per cent) and core operating profits for the year to 1 March (FY 2024).
Core operating profit for the year surged almost 29 per cent to US$1.58bn (HKD 12.2bn) with the company saying business had been boosted by post-Covid improvements in mobility and retail activity, especially tourism from mainland China to Hong Kong and Macau, which saw retail sales values rise by 32 per cent and 53 per cent respectively.
But in its latest quarterly update, CTF says: “Macro-economic externalities, particularly record gold prices, continued to weigh on consumer sentiment, a phenomenon observed across the industry”.
Same store sales across its franchised stores on mainland China fell by 24 per cent, and by 31 per cent at its outlets in Hong Kong and Macau.
Gem Diamonds says revenue for the three months to 30 September (Q3 2024) was $42.7m, a year-on-year rise of 36 per cent.
The company has seen above-average recoveries of +100-cts diamonds (13 so far this year compared to an historic average of eight) and other high-value diamonds from its Letseng mine, in Lesotho.
The highest price achieved during the quarter was $45,537 per carat for a 10.98 carat pink diamond.
The UK-based miner sold 26,617 carats, down 11 per cent year-on-year, but saw average per carat prices increase 18 per cent to $1,603.
Six diamonds sold for over $1m during the quarter, contributing $22.6m, and five +100-cts were recovered.
Letseng – 70 per cent owned by Gem and 30 per cent by the Lesotho government – is the highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.
Total YTD 2024 sales are $120.5m, compared to $103m at the same point last year.
Petra reported a revenue slump for Q1 2025 after deferring the sale of almost all its South African goods because of persistent weak demand.
The UK-based miner said its only revenue for the quarter ending 30 September was $8.5m for an 18.85-carat blue diamond recovered at Cullinan Mine, South Africa, and $14m for goods from its Williamson mine, in Tanzania.
Total revenue for the quarter, including profit share arrangements, was $23m, down 77 per cent compared to Q1 FY 2024 and 80 per cent compared to Q4 2024.
Petra said its combined tenders 1 and 2, which took place this month, after the end of Q1, brought in $76m.
Average per carat prices were up 13 per cent to $113, compared to the last tender it held, in June. But like-for-like prices were down 9 per cent. Higher prices were due to a better product mix. The company said it had withdrawn 88,000 carats (worth around $3m) of brown goods because of poor demand.
“Our combined first and second tenders indicate continued weakness in the rough diamond market, more than offset by Petra’s product mix,” said CEO Richard Duffy in the Q1 FY 2025 operating update and final sales results for Tenders 1 and 2 FY 2025.
He said Petra was further reviewing cash generation opportunities in the face of ongoing market weakness and a stronger rand.
“We remain committed to our target of net cash generation for the full year in FY 2025,” he said.
“We continue to expect prices to show some improvement in CY 2025, with market fundamentals being supportive in the medium-to-longer term.”
De Beers’ diamond production fell by 25 per cent during the quarter ending 30 September, and could fall even further.
Parent company Anglo American said output for Q3 was 5.6m carats, compared to 7.3m for the same period last year. It reduced production because of challenging market conditions and warned that it would “continue to assess the options to reduce production going forward”.
Anglo also provided an update on plans to sell or demerge its platinum and steelmaking coal assets as part of its “accelerated portfolio simplification” to focus on copper and other more profitable parts of its business, but make no mention of De Beers.
The UK-based company announced in May that it would be seeking a new owner for De Beers, following a bid by mining rival BHP to buy out Anglo.
Duncan Wanblad, chief executive of Anglo American, said: “As previously announced, we reduced rough diamond production from De Beers in response to market conditions.
“The diamond market remains challenging as the midstream continues to hold higher than normal levels of inventory and the expectation remains for a protracted recovery.”
So far this year De Beers has produced 18.9m carats, a 21 per cent drop on YTD 2023.
De Beers says it will, for the first time, disclose the country of its diamonds’ origins – Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, or Canada.
The move is designed to meet growing consumer demand for ethical sourcing and transparency, together with a desire to understand the journey of their particular diamond.
De Beers currently sells its rough output to sightholders in aggregated boxes marked only as DTC (Diamond Trading Company) without indicating the country in which they were mined.
It says it will initially provide data on the country of origin for all diamonds over 1.25 carats that are newly registered on its Tracr traceability platform, and over 1.0 carats from January 2025.
De Beers says advanced algorithmic matching enabled by artificial intelligence now allows it to digitally “disaggregate” diamonds to confirm their specific country of origin.
“For the first time in history, we have the technology to provide our customers with the provenance of their diamonds at scale,” said Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group.
“We know that our clients care deeply about sustainability and want to understand the good their diamonds have done. Our ambition is to offer them the story of every De Beers-sourced diamond, tracing its journey and positive impact from its origin to its crafting.”
