Prices Improve at Stornoway Rough Tender

RAPAPORT... Rough prices rose at Stornoway Diamond Corporation's firstsale of 2018 as the market improved and the company sold higher-quality productionfrom its Renard mine. Last week's tender in Antwerp achieved an average price of$104 per carat, Stornoway's highest price to date, the miner reported Monday. Somelarger diamonds fetched $140 per carat, while 24 stones above 10.8 carats wentfor an average of $3,210 per carat. The improvement from an average of $85 per carat for 2017reflected a strengthening diamond sector at the beginning of the year, thecompany noted. In addition, there were fewer diamond breakages during theproduction process, which had affected prices at earlier tenders, while the mixof diamond sizes and qualities was also more favorable. In total, the miner sold 138,687 carats for $14.4 million atthe tender. A record 132 out of 190 attendees put in bids for goods, with eachparcel receiving an average of 18.5 bids. Stornoway missed its production and sales forecasts in 2017,the first full year of production at the Renard project in Canada. The miner recovered1.64 million carats of rough during the year, compared with its projected 1.69million, while challenging market conditions and lower-than-expected diamondquality and size dented prices. The company expects production to drop to 1.6million carats this year.