Stornoway Diamond Corp reports that the initial sale of diamonds from its Renard mine in Quebec province in Canada will be held in Antwerp starting on November 14.
That is two months earlier than previously expected, the miner said in a statement.
Stornoway said that first ore was introduced to the Renard diamond plant on July 15, and as of the end of the quarter, 91,010 tonnes of ore have been processed with attributable carat production of 111,556 carats, representing an average grade of 123 carats per hundred tonnes.
The firm reported that 21 special stones weighing more than 10.8 carats were recovered during the quarter.
Matt Manson, President and CEO, commented: “We are pleased with the initial progress of the ramp-up at Renard and the production volumes we have achieved. This has allowed us to schedule our first diamond sale earlier than we had planned. We are working through the type of challenges normal in the commissioning of a new diamond processing plant, and remain on schedule for commercial production by year end. Large volumes of production data are required before a meaningful statement of resource reconciliation can be made in any diamond project. Nevertheless, we are cautiously optimistic about the recovery trends we are seeing at this early stage.”
The Renard mine official opening ceremony will be held on October 19 in the presence of company’s board of directors and employees, local community members, and key project stakeholders.
