The miner pointed out that sales were below forecasts due to a weakening of rough and polished diamond prices during the quarter.
Canada's Dominion Diamond Corp said sales edged up 3 percent on the year in the fourth quarter that ended January 31 to $240.6 million.
“Despite good Christmas sales in the important U.S. market, weakness in rough and polished prices towards the end of fiscal 2015, primarily caused by a tightening of available bank financing to the cutting and polishing industry, has resulted in lower rough diamond sales than the company had previously expected during the period.”
The mining firm owns the Ekati mine, and has a 40-percent share in the Diavik mines; both operations are located in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Dominion received $159.1 million from the sale of 897,000 carats from Ekati at $177.4 per carat.
Meanwhile, it 40 percent holding in Diavik gave it 778,000 carats that were sold for $81.5 million, or $104.8 per carat.
Production during the quarter at Ekati soared 70 percent to 821,000 carats, but at Diavik production plunged 28 percent to 628,000 carats. Overall, Dominion’s production rose 7 percent to 1.45 million carats in the quarter.
For the fiscal year as a whole, production surged 31 percent to 5.98 million carats. Ekati’s production rose 91 percent to 3.16 million carats as the mine contributed less to Dominion’s business in the previous year since the mine was acquired mid-way through fiscal 2014. Dominion’s Diavik production declined 3 percent to 2.822 million carats.
