Thursday April 08 2010

Entrepreneur Dermot Desmond has seen his stake in Canadian diamond company Mountain Province Diamonds rise in value by more than 140pc in a year as demand for rough diamonds moves back towards pre-credit crunch highs.

A new annual report for the company shows Desmond's stake now standing at 21.4pc, held through a company called Bottin Investments.

The company, headquartered in Toronto, owns the Gahcho Kue diamond project, one of Canada's largest diamond deposits.

Mountain Province owns 49pc of the mine, with minerals giant De Beers holding the remainder of the equity. The stock is expected to see higher volumes of trading ahead of the release of a feasibility study by the middle of this year.

The owners of the project are hoping for average annual production of 3 million tonnes of ore. They also hope the mine will have a life of 12 years. An environmental impact statement is being completed in tandem with the feasibility study.

Demand from China and India has forced the prices of rough diamonds up in the last two years, helping stocks like Mountain Province to trade upward.