Rio Tinto Q4 Diamond Output Jumps, Posts Fall For 2004

Diversified miner Rio Tinto reported today (Wednesday) a jump in diamond production in the fourth quarter of 2004, but a fall in output for the full year compared with 2003, mostly due to a fall in production at Argyle.

Rio produced 9.95 million carats in the fourth quarter of last year – an 11 percent rise on the same period of 2003.

For 2004 as a whole, the miner produced 25.2 million carats compared with 33.3 million carats in 2003 – a fall of 24 percent.

The company said output from its Argyle mine started to return to normal in the fourth quarter of last year following tight mining conditions earlier in the year which led to the processing of lower grade ore.

Rio said its share of production from Argyle in the fourth quarter of last year rose 8 percent from a year earlier to 9.01 million carats. For all of 2004, it fell by a third on 2003 to 20.6 million carats.

Meanwhile, its share of production from the Diavik mine in Canada in which it has 60 percent ownership, jumped 36 percent to 901,000 carats, In 2004, output almost doubled to 4.55 million carats.