Dominion Diamond Corp. says production from its Ekati mine and the Diavik mine that it jointly owns with Rio Tinto PLC were substantially ahead of the company's plan in the second quarter.
The Toronto-based mining company says its Ekati mine benefited from improvements to its processing plant over the past 10 months, combined with ore grades that were higher than expected.
Ore processing at Diavik was 29 per cent ahead of plan for the three months ended July 31, and 23 per cent ahead of plan for the first six months of Dominion Diamond's 2015 financial year.
It says Diavik, which is 60 per cent owned by Rio, benefited from higher mining rates and improved equipment availability.
For the three months ended July 31, the two mines had a total of $277.3-million (U.S.) of sales, with 1,511 carats sold.