Shares of Mountain Province Mining, Inc. (TSX:MPVD) (NASDAQ:MPVD) are having their best day in two months after reporting recovery of the largest gem quality diamond ever at the Gahcho Kue diamond mine in Canada's Northwest Territories.
Mountain Province Diamonds is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada on the mine. Total probable mineral reserves at the project are 53.7 million carats of diamonds.
MPVD said that during April an 84.65-carat- and a 53.9-carat-gem-quality diamond were recovered from the project. The bid for April production of fancies and specials was won by Mountain Province and included these high-quality stones.
Mountain Province will now be selling the diamonds through its broker in Antwerp, Belgium.
MPVD CEO Patrick Evans said that due to the exceptional quality of the 53.9-carat diamond, he expects it to fetch a record price at tender.
In other happenings, Mountain Province said it is making progress on realigning the reserve account funding requirement via receipt of a unanimous waiver from the participants in its loan facility of the requirement to fund the cash call reserve account. Furthermore, a JV partners have approved a $19-million U.S. budget to install new systems at the mine to improve operational efficiencies.
Shares of MPVD are one of the top movers on the TSX in Thursday trading, rising 10.4% to $4.23 shortly after 1 p.m. EDT.
