(IDEX Online News) – Stornoway Diamond Corporation has announced its results for 2015 fiscal year ended December 31, which showed that its Renard Diamond Project continues within the planned schedule and budget.

The company said that construction progress stood at 63.3-percent, ahead of the initial plan of 59.6 percent and with detailed engineering substantially complete. As a result, the first ore delivery to the Renard diamond process is now expected by the end of September. Commercial production is expected by December 31, which represents a five-month improvement on the previous schedule. The re-baselined schedule resulted in the forecast cost to complete the project from C$811 million ($611 million) to C$775 million ($584 million).

Stornoway’s $90 million third tranche of payment deposits under its streaming agreement with Orion Mine Finance, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, is expected on March 31.

For the two-month period ended December 31 the company a net loss of $4.3 million, and a $3.7 million net loss for the eight-month period ended December 31.

At the Renard 2-3 and Renard 65 open pits Stornoway extracted 5,975,813 tons of ore compared to the planned 5,725, 429 – a 4-percent increase. A total of 151,591 tons of ore had been delivered to the stockpile compared to a plan of 100,000 tons – a 51-percent increase.

Production at the underground mine was hampered in November and December, due to water inflows on a fault structure. Progress picked up in January, but was slowed again in February. It currently stands 73-percent complete.

“With the diamond market beginning to recover after a challenging 12 months, we look forward to achieving first diamond production at Renard later this year based on a foundation of solid project execution and with a stronger than expected balance sheet,” said Stornoway president and CEO, Matt Manson.

The Renard Diamond Project is located 350 kilometers north of Chibougamau in the James Bay region of north-central Québec.