Following a competitive international tender process for the Mothae kimberlite project in Lesotho, Australia-based miner Lucapa Diamonds has acquired a 70% interest in the project for $9 million, Gem konnect reports. The sum is payable over ten months.
Mothae used to belong to Canadian miner Lucara Diamond Corporation, which put it for sale in 2015. Earlier this week, Lucapa said it plans to bring the project into production within 12 months, “under staged low-risk development strategy”.
Lucapa is the owner of the Lulo mine in Angola, and the earlier stage Brooking and Orapa Area F projects, in Australia and Botswana, respectively. Lucapa’s Managing Director Stephen Wetheralll said: “There is only one thing better than owning one diamond mine that produces large, high-value diamonds, and that is owning two. Mothae is a fantastic diamond asset, located in a cluster of operating diamond mines in Lesotho, and just 5 km from Gem Diamond’s Letseng mine, which is the highest average dollar per carat hard rock diamond mine in the world”.
