Desmond offloads part of stake in diamond miner

Dermot Desmond has sold, for about €7 million, part of his stake in a company that co-owns one of the largest diamond mines in the world.

The billionaire offloaded two million shares in Canadian-listed Mountain Province Diamonds (MPD) to "an investor in a private, off-market transaction", according to the company. The deal reduces Mr Desmond's share of MPD to 21.43 per cent, it told investors this week.

MPD owns 49 per cent of Gahcho Kue, a massive new diamond mine on the edge of the Arctic Circle in Canada’s Northwestern Territories.

The remainder of the project is owned by the international behemoth De Beers, which will also operate the mine. Mr Desmond will effectively own about 10 per cent of the mine.

Gahcho Kue will produce an expected 5 million carats of diamonds annually when it goes into production in late 2016 or early 2017, making it about the seventh largest in the world in terms of value. It is one of only a handful of new diamond mines due to come onstream worldwide.

The operator is working on securing Gahcho Kue’s environmental permits, which should be completed within months.An MPD study found that it will cost about €580 million to develop the mine. MPD and De Beers have still to raise the full cost of building out the project.

On Thursday, MPD and De Beers also signed an “impact benefit agreement” with the Lutsel K’e nation, a local native tribe.