Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.

Sixteen holes for 5,040 metres through the Hearne Northwest Extension, spotted in a pit bench face in late 2021, showed ten significant kimberlite intersections - up to 86 metres in hole MPV-22-568C - and modelling suggests a volume potentially equal to the Hearne orebody as originally defined. It sits below the exposed benches and plunges north-west, so the joint venture is looking at whether it can be mined underground.

drilling result

Finished the 2022 Kennady North program with 25 of 35 holes hitting kimberlite over more than 5,000 metres, and a new body, KE, about 450 metres east of the Kelvin deposit - three holes through kimberlite sheets up to 2.13 metres, thin so far and to be drilled again in 2023. Eight volcaniclastic intersections came from the North Anomaly, and the ground now runs to over 113,000 hectares.

drilling progress report

Halfway through a 6,000 metre winter program on Kennady North, 16 of 20 holes had hit kimberlite across three of four target areas - all seven holes north of Faraday 1-3, all five south of Faraday 2 at an average 4.5 metres wide, and four of six south of Kelvin. The North Anomaly holes included volcaniclastic kimberlite, which the company notes often points to a larger body.

drilling progress report

Closed the US$50 million junior secured loan from Desmond and issued him warrants over 41,000,000 shares at US$0.60975, exercisable to December 2027. The loan ranks behind the second lien notes, can be prepaid without penalty, and is a related-party transaction under Canadian minority-protection rules; the warrants were partial consideration for the credit rather than a separate raise.

debt financing

The updated technical report put Mountain Province's 49% share of the mine at a C$1,233 million pre-tax and C$964 million post-tax present value at a 7.5% discount. Reserves stood at 42.6 million carats at 1.51 carats per tonne, with 2.6 million carats added before depletion, and the Tuzo reserve grade rose 11% to 1.33 carats per tonne. Outside reserves sit 3.0 million indicated carats at 1.25 and 20.3 million inferred at 1.72 carats per tonne, and the mine plan moved to 3.6 million tonnes a year.

resource reserve update

Disinterested shareholders approved the US$50 million Desmond loan and its 41 million warrants with 87% in favour, which the company framed as a step towards refinancing its debt later in 2022. It also started a 6,000 metre drilling and geophysics program on the wholly-owned Kennady North ground aimed at new discoveries.

debt financing

Mailed the circular for a 28 February vote on the Desmond loan, now firmed up: US$50 million junior secured to December 2027 at 8% to December 2022, plus warrants over 41,000,000 shares exercisable at US$0.60975 - about US$25 million in total - rather than the C$0.78 first floated. Only disinterested shareholders could vote.

debt financing

Set out the terms of a proposed US$50 million loan from Dermot Desmond ranking behind the existing second lien notes: 8% to December 2022, then 2% above whatever replaces the notes, maturing December 2027, with 41 million warrants at C$0.78 attached. Nothing was binding yet - it needed definitive documents, regulatory clearance and a vote of disinterested shareholders. The company also said the undrawn US$25 million first lien revolver would be used within weeks to fund the winter ice-road resupply, and that it expected US$50 million of extra cash flow by end-2022 to help a wider debt restructuring.

debt financing

Repaid the Dunebridge term loan in full with a final US$11.5 million payment, three months early, and extended the US$25 million revolving facility from the same lender to 31 March 2022 on unchanged terms for a fee of 2% of drawn principal. The board again recorded the finding that the company was in serious financial difficulty, the wording that lets a related-party deal skip a formal valuation - Dunebridge is ultimately owned by largest shareholder Dermot Desmond.

debt financing

Borrowed a further US$33 million from Dunebridge at a fixed 10% a year plus a 5% fee on each drawing, on top of the existing US$25 million revolving facility, with the term loan shrinking to US$22 million in July and due at the end of December 2021. Two directors connected to the major shareholder recused themselves, and the board recorded a formal finding that the company was in serious financial difficulty - the plainest statement of distress in the record so far.

debt financing

Completed the Dunebridge diamond sale agreement after conditional Toronto exchange approval and consent from all lenders, with the first tranche of about US$22 million due the same day. The independent committee was advised by Lazard Canada and Stikeman Elliott, with Bennett Jones for the company.

asset acquisition disposition

With Antwerp shut and no traditional buyers, agreed to sell US$50 million of run-of-mine diamonds (stones under 10.8 carats) to Dunebridge Worldwide at prevailing market prices, the first tranche about US$22 million. Dunebridge takes a 10% fee a year on each sale plus costs, and any surplus when it eventually resells is split equally. A committee of four directors independent of both management and the major shareholder reviewed it against the alternatives - a structure that signals a related-party transaction.

asset acquisition disposition

Scotiabank and Nedbank relaxed the covenants on the undrawn US$50 million revolving facility for three quarters of 2020, lifting the maximum leverage ratio from 4.0 times to 4.5 at March, 5.0 at June and 4.25 at September; if June leverage exceeded 4.5 times, half the facility would become unavailable. This is covenant relief granted as Covid-19 closed the diamond market, not a tightening, and the facility remained undrawn.

debt default or forbearance

Wrote $115.8 million off the carrying value of the mine because expected future diamond prices had been cut to match the market, turning the fourth quarter into a $115.7 million loss, and withdrew all guidance over Covid-19. The mine itself performed: 3.58 million tonnes treated in 2019 for 6.82 million carats at 1.90 carats per tonne, with fourth-quarter grade at 2.11, but realised prices fell to US$64 a carat and cash costs ran at $103 a tonne treated and $49 a carat recovered.

resource reserve update

Postponed its third sale of 2020 indefinitely after Antwerp, where all its diamonds are sold, shut its commercial buildings from 19 March over Covid-19. The mine kept running, but with the single sales channel closed the company had no way to turn carats into cash and warned later sales could go the same way.

production update

Chose to leave Nasdaq rather than fix a share price that had sat below the US$1 minimum for more than 30 trading days, saying almost all volume was on the Toronto exchange and the cost of the second listing was no longer worth it. Last Nasdaq trading was around 10 February 2020; the shares kept trading in Toronto and the company said it would eventually seek to deregister from the SEC entirely.

listing compliance notice

Found a new kimberlite, named Wilson, about 200 metres east of the Tuzo pipe and inside the planned Tuzo open pit - the first kimberlite discovered on the joint venture leases in over 20 years. Holes cut up to 119 metres of kimberlite, it comes to surface under lake sediment, and a 115.2 kilogram sample yielded a 0.28 carat diamond.

drilling result

The Faraday 2 resource grew 74% to 5.45 million carats in 2.07 million tonnes, a grade of 2.63 carats per tonne against 2.24 before, after the north-west extension found in 2017 was included. The bigger change was value: US$140 a carat against US$112, on revised stone size distribution modelling - well above the roughly US$60 to US$85 a carat Gahcho Kué itself was fetching at tender.

resource reserve update

Further drilling found kimberlite in the corridor between the 5034 and Tuzo pits with true thicknesses up to 72 metres, and confirmed the Curie gravity target as kimberlite up to 52 metres thick starting only 18 metres below surface. None of this ground is in the current resource and its full extent is not yet known.

drilling progress report

Declared its first ever dividend, 4 Canadian cents a share, on the back of $18.5 million of mine earnings in the quarter and $73.3 million of adjusted profit before interest, tax and depreciation in the half. The mine treated 1.68 million tonnes in the half for 3.57 million carats on a 100% basis, a recovered grade of 2.12 carats per tonne, ahead of plan. A $6.3 million quarterly net loss came mostly from a $7.7 million unrealised currency loss on the US dollar notes.

dividend declaration

First exploration season on the Kennady North ground as owner rather than spectator: 38 holes for 6,826 metres across three rigs, finishing delineation of the north-west extension of Faraday 2 that had added over 150 metres to the kimberlite. The drilling is meant to lift the Faraday 2 pipe model to inferred confidence.

drilling progress report

Completed the Kennady acquisition, six years after spinning the same ground out. Kennady holders took 0.975 Mountain Province shares each, Kennady was delisted and wound down as a reporting issuer, and its directors and officers all resigned, replaced by Mountain Province's David Whittle and Perry Ing. Kennady shareholders' equity was rolled into Mountain Province stock rather than cashed out.

business combination

Year-end 2017 probable reserves stood at 31.5 million tonnes containing 49.4 million carats at 1.57 carats per tonne, after a year of mining. The grade differs sharply by pipe: 5034 at 1.91 and Hearne at 1.99 carats per tonne against Tuzo, the largest by tonnage at 15.7 million tonnes, at only 1.22.

resource reserve update

Signed a non-binding memorandum with De Beers to fold the Kennady kimberlites into the Gahcho Kué joint venture if the acquisition completes, which would let them be mined and processed through the existing plant. Nothing is committed: the parties still have to agree resource work and commercial terms in a definitive agreement.

material agreement

The second sale of 2018 fetched US$142 a carat, by far the highest Mountain Province had achieved at any tender, though on only 177,000 carats for US$25.1 million; on a normalised basis the price was US$76, so the headline reflects an unusually large-stone assortment rather than a market move. The release also confirmed the company's intention to begin paying a dividend.

production update

Agreed to buy back Kennady Diamonds - the exploration ground it spun out in 2012 - in an all-share deal at 0.975 Mountain Province shares per Kennady share, about C$3.46 a share and C$176 million of equity, a 26% premium, leaving Mountain Province holders with 76% of the combined company. It brings in the Kelvin kimberlite at 13.62 million carats indicated, 1.60 carats per tonne, valued at US$63 a carat on a 2016 bulk sample, the Faraday cluster at 5.02 million carats inferred, 1.54 carats per tonne and US$98 a carat, and 67,164 hectares surrounding the mine.

business combination

All six holes drilled so far in the Southwest Corridor between the 5034 and Hearne pits hit diamond-bearing kimberlite, with true thicknesses of 3.1 to 26.4 metres, in ground the mine plan currently treats as waste rock and which is in no resource statement. Surveys also flagged a new gravity target between the Tesla and Tuzo pipes and a possible south-west extension of Tesla; 11 more holes were still to drill.

drilling progress report

Closed the US$330 million 8.0% second lien notes, repaying and terminating the project loan and clearing the De Beers development-cost balance. Interim CEO David Whittle said this removed the project loan's cash reserve accounts, lender-approval restrictions and, in his words, any further need for bank waivers - the first mention in the record that the company had been seeking waivers under that facility. Patrick Evans, chief executive through the whole build, was no longer in the role.

capital raising announcement

Priced the notes at US$330 million, US$5 million more than first proposed, with an 8.0% coupon, issued at 97.992 of face and due 15 December 2022. Alongside them the company would sign a US$50 million first lien revolving facility that ranks ahead of the notes, kept as a liquidity cushion rather than drawn.

debt financing

Launched a US$325 million private offering of second lien notes due 2022, secured on substantially all assets including the 49% joint venture interest, to repay the US$370 million project loan (US$357 million still drawn at 30 September) and about C$48.5 million owed to De Beers for historic development costs. The notes would rank behind a new US$50 million first lien revolving facility to be signed at the same time, and no interest rate had been set.

debt financing

The seventh diamond sale was the largest to date by both value and volume, 463,000 carats for US$27.1 million, but at US$59 a carat against US$72 to US$95 in earlier 2017 sales; the fall was because 85,000 carats of small goods were fast-tracked into it and De Beers won most of the large and coloured stones on offer. On a like-for-like basis the company put the price at US$72 a carat, in line with US$75 year to date. The mine was running well above its 1.57 carats per tonne reserve grade, recovering 2.05 carats per tonne from 1.84 million tonnes in 2017 to the end of August for 3.77 million carats on a 100% basis.

production update

Gahcho Kué reached commercial production on 2 March 2017, on budget and ahead of schedule, roughly six years after the environmental review began. Three open pits are expected to yield about 54 million carats over the mine's life; De Beers holds 51% and operates, Mountain Province 49%.

production update

Plant commissioning finished ahead of schedule and the ramp-up to production began: first ore exposed in March 2016, first ore through the plant on 20 June and first diamonds recovered on 30 June, including 12.10 and 24.65 carat gem-quality stones. The first split of production with De Beers was set for mid-September and the first sale before the end of 2016, with commercial production targeted for the first quarter of 2017.

production update

Closed the US$370 million term loan, seven years at US dollar LIBOR plus 5.5%, with Natixis, Scotiabank and Nedbank leading a syndicate that also took in ING, Export Development Canada and Bank of Montreal. With it the company said the whole cost of building and commissioning Gahcho Kué was covered, ending three years in which construction had been paid for entirely out of repeated share issues. All 2015 ice-road deliveries were completed on schedule.

debt financing

The C$95 million rights offering was oversubscribed, with 23,761,783 shares issued and Desmond's standby commitment left unused. The money funds the US$75 million cost-overrun facility that is the condition for drawing the US$370 million term loan. Shares outstanding reached 158,966,333, roughly double the 80.7 million of late 2012.

capital raising announcement

Primary syndication of the US$370 million loan was completed, leaving documentation and closing. Drawing on it still depended on funding the cost-overrun account out of the C$95 million rights issue closing on 30 March, which Dermot Desmond had agreed to backstop in full.

debt financing

Caustic fusion of 434 kilograms of core from the 2014 deep holes recovered 2,514 diamonds weighing 3.24 carats in total, of which 2.46 carats were stones larger than 0.85mm - a sample grade of 5.67 carats per tonne at that cut-off. The coarse end was thin, with a single stone in the +2.36mm class and none above 3.35mm.

drilling result

The lenders gave credit approval for the US$370 million facility, with Scotiabank replacing Deutsche Bank as a lead arranger for reasons the company said were unrelated to the project; Natixis and Nedbank stayed. Drawing on the loan still required a separate cost-overrun facility to be arranged first, so no money was available yet. Construction was more than half complete at the end of 2014.

debt financing

Raised C$100 million at C$5.00 a share in two parts: a C$75 million bought deal of 15,000,000 shares underwritten by BMO, RBC, Scotia and Haywood on a 5% commission, and a C$25 million non-brokered placement. Shares outstanding reached 135,204,550, up from 106,039,522 in March.

capital raising announcement

The territorial environment minister approved the Type A water licence, completing the permitting Mountain Province had been working through since the environmental review opened in 2011.

joint venture update

The land and water board issued the Type A land use permit for Gahcho Kué and referred the Type A water licence to the territorial minister for final sign-off, leaving the water licence as the last major permit after eight years of process.

joint venture update

Mandated Deutsche Bank, Natixis and Nedbank to underwrite and arrange a senior secured term loan of up to US$370 million to fund its 49% share of building the mine - the first debt in a build funded entirely with equity until now. Nothing was committed yet: the mandate was subject to due diligence, bank credit approvals and documentation expected by the end of 2014.

debt financing

Follow-up drilling confirmed the Tuzo pipe continues past 740 metres below surface, with hole MPV14-411C cutting kimberlite from 601 to 743 metres and MPV14-406C from 85 to 655 metres, and showed the pipe plunging north-east at depth. Two holes had to be wedged and one abandoned in kimberlite at 457 metres because of unstable ice.

drilling result

Filed the 2014 feasibility study report itself, unchanged in its headline numbers from the 2 April announcement, and disclosed that a financial adviser had been hired to arrange project debt - the first step towards funding the C$858.5 million build with something other than equity.

resource reserve update

The revised feasibility study put Gahcho Kué at a 32.6% return and a C$1.005 billion net present value at a 10% discount, for C$858.5 million of remaining capital. It plans a 12-year mine treating 3 million tonnes a year for 53.4 million carats in total, averaging 4.45 million carats a year and 5.6 million in the first three full years, at a modelled diamond price of US$118.38 a carat in 2014 money rising to a life-of-mine average of US$149.66.

resource reserve update

The deep drilling paid off in the resource: indicated resources rose 12% to 56.6 million carats (33.8 million tonnes at 167 carats per hundred tonnes) and inferred rose 80% to 18.5 million carats (11.3 million tonnes at 164 carats per hundred tonnes). Almost all of the gain was Tuzo below 350 metres, where inferred carats went from 6.2 million in 2009 to 14.4 million plus 6.0 million now indicated.

resource reserve update

Raised $47 million in a rights offering to fund its 49% share of the 2013 Gahcho Kué budget. Holders took up 80.65% of the issue, 10,850,069 shares in all, and the shortfall was absorbed by largest shareholder Bottin (International) Investments, Dermot Desmond's vehicle, under a standby commitment.

capital raising announcement

Completed the spin-out on 6 July: Kennady North and C$3 million of cash went to Kennady Diamonds for 16,143,111 of its shares, which were then handed to Mountain Province holders one for five. Mountain Province was left holding its 49% of Gahcho Kué as its asset, and Kennady began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange as KDI.

business combination

The joint venture partners approved C$31.3 million of initial capital to move Gahcho Kué towards construction, covering permit applications, front-end engineering, the 2013 winter road and long-lead equipment. Final court approval for the Kennady North spin-out had come through on 30 April, and the partners reported Gahcho Kué diamond prices marginally higher.

joint venture update

Five deep holes totalling 3,725 metres confirmed substantial kimberlite at Tuzo well below the 350-metre base of the existing resource, with intercepts of 137 to 216 metres and the deepest cutting kimberlite from 604 to 819 metres. The pipe widens with depth, from about 125 metres across near surface to 225 metres at 300 metres, and the company noted the existing resource model shows grade rising with depth.

drilling result

Won an interim court order for a plan of arrangement to spin the wholly-owned Kennady North exploration ground, plus about C$3 million of working capital, into a separately listed company, Kennady Diamonds, with one Kennady share for every five Mountain Province shares. The same release disclosed that the auditors had put a going-concern note on the 2011 accounts.

business combination

The review panel ruled that the 11,000-page environmental impact statement for Gahcho Kué met its terms of reference, which let the formal environmental review of the project begin. Mountain Province holds 49% of the joint venture; De Beers Canada operates it.

joint venture update