Dominion Diamond Posts $38 Million Loss In Second Quarter

(IDEX Online) – Dominion Diamond posted a loss of $37.9 million for its fiscal 2017 second quarter ended July 31, while first half losses amounted to $73.8 million.

Sales for the quarter slumped by more than 23% on the year to $160 million from $209.7 million, For the first half, revenues dropped 15% compared to the first half of 2015.

The drop in the miner's performance was expected, following the fire at the Ekati diamond mine process plant on June 23, forcing it to shut it down for three months and to reduce its 2017 production forecast by 16% to 4.7 million carats from 5.6 million carats.

The company expects the process plant to restart on or about September 21 at an estimated total cost of repair of $15 million.

On a brighter note, the second quarter saw the first sales of Misery Main production from the Ekati mine. Commercial production at Misery Main was declared in May 2016, ahead of plan. The first sales of pre-commercial production occurred in the second quarter of fiscal 2017 and confirmed expected prices.

Meanwhile, at the Diavik Mine, processing volumes in the second quarter were 5% lower on the year due to lower ore availability. Diamonds recovered during the quarter were 26% down on the same quarter of the year before due to lower processing volumes and lower recovered grades.