Mountain Province Diamonds has unveiled a 95.21 carat gem diamond, which has been recovered from the C$1bn ($778.2m) Gahcho Kué mining project in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Image: 95.21 carat gem quality diamond. Photo: courtesy of CNW Group/Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.
The recovered diamond was a 95 carat white octahedron of top clarity, claimed the Canadian diamond miner. Mountain Province Diamonds said that it is also the largest gem quality stone and fourth largest stone recovered from the diamond mine since production started less than two years ago.
The miner said that the recovered diamond was part of the fancies and specials parcel it had acquired in the recent production split from the Gahcho Kué mine.
Mountain Province Diamonds diamond marketing vice president Reid Mackie said: “The recovery of this diamond firmly establishes Mountain Province as a reliable producer of exceptional, high quality, Canadian diamonds in very large sizes and bodes well for the future discovery of similar gems.”
Diamond mining giant De Beers Group’s Canadian subsidiary holds a stake of 51% in Gahcho Kué with the remaining 49% stake held by Mountain Province Diamonds.
De Beers Canada is the operator of the Gahcho Kué mine located at Kennady Lake, about 280km northeast of Yellowknife and 80km southeast of Snap Lake Mine owned by De Beers.
Gahcho Kué is among the largest new diamond mines in the world. It is made up of a cluster of four diamondiferous kimberlites, out of which three are being developed and mined under the initial 12-year mine plan.
De Beers expects to treat about 34 million tonnes of material containing an estimated 53 million carats from the mine whose construction began in 2014/15.
The first kimberlite deposit at Gahcho Kué was discovered in 1995 by Mountain Province Diamonds, which was named as 5034. Two years later, De Beers Exploration discovered three other deposits, out of which two of them – Hearne and Tuzo kimberlites are believed to have “excellent economic potential”.
The mine, which started ramping up of production in early August 2016, was officially inaugurated in September 2016. It entered into commercial production in last March.