The president of Gahcho Kué mine part-owner Mountain Province Diamonds is stepping down after the company reported a $128-million loss for the first nine months of 2025.
That figure is by far the biggest loss reported by Mountain Province at this stage of any year in the past decade, eclipsing even the Covid-disrupted year of 2020.
On Wednesday, without making any direct link to those figures, the company announced Mark Wall – president and chief executive officer for the past four years – will leave his role next month.
In a news release, Mountain Province said Wall was resigning “to pursue other opportunities.”
Company chairman Jonathan Comerford thanked Wall “for his substantial contribution to the company and the operations of the [Gahcho Kué] mine over the past four years, during what has been a very challenging period for both the company and the diamond industry as a whole.”
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Gahcho Kué is one of three active diamond mines in the NWT. De Beers owns 51 percent and operates the mine. Mountain Province owns the other 49 percent.
Not long ago, Gahcho Kué was a source of tens of millions of dollars in net income for Mountain Province.
But the company has lost $127,980,000 so far this year, it announced this week, including a loss of $55,900,000 between July and September alone.
Mountain Province insists Gahcho Kué workers are about to move into higher-grade ore and key maintenance has taken place at its processing plant, meaning “the mine is well set up for 2026.”
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However, like other diamond mines, Gahcho Kué is being hurt by 50-percent tariffs applied by the United States to India, a diamond polishing centre through which most gems must pass after leaving Canada.
“The diamond market has remained constrained by the tariffs and related trade negotiations between the United States and India. Any near-term improvement in price largely depends on the United States and India reaching a trade deal,” Wall was quoted as saying in a separate Mountain Province news release last week.
The lab-grown diamond industry, which offers customers gems for fractions of the price a natural diamond might cost, is also eating into the NWT mines’ business.
Currency markets play a role in Mountain Province’s losses, too. The weakening of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar hurts the company’s books because it holds long-term debt in US dollars, which must be translated to Canadian for reporting purposes. Mountain Province described “foreign exchange losses of $10.7 million” in its latest figures.
The company said on Wednesday it is now starting a process to find a new president and CEO.
