Rio Tinto Diamonds Production up 14% in Q1 2015

(IDEX Online News) – Rio Tinto has announced that its diamond production rose 14 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same prior year period. During the quarter, the multi-miner’s share of production was 4.155 million carats, compared to 3.65 million carats in 2014.

At Argyle in Australia, diamond recovery increased 31 percent over the same quarter of 2014 as the ramp up of underground production continued. This figure was a 77 percent improvement over the fourth quarter of 2014 and reflects the maintenance shutdown that took place in the fourth quarter of last year to implement improved design modifications to both underground crushers.

The lower number of carats recovered in the first quarter at Diavik in Canada compared to last year reflects lower ore availability as mining progressed through an area of higher dilution as well as crusher plant upgrades. Rio Tinto said this also accounts for the 3 percent reduction in the quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.

At Murowa in Zimbabwe, recovery was significantly lower due to a planned plant

shutdown to reconfigure the processing plant and a decision to reduce production rates pending confirmation (that has been received) that a new 15 percent export tax did not apply to goods from the mine.