Lucapa Diamond Company has announced the the first diamond recoveries from the 70% owned Mothae kimberlite mine in Lesotho. The largest of the diamonds recovered in the first test run was 6.6 carats.
In 2017, Lucapa issued a “maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource estimate for the Mothae kimberlite pipe” in Lesotho. The resource estimate assigns an average value of $1,063 per carat, “which the company ascribes to the presence of high value Type IIa diamonds”, according to the report. Mothae, which is located located about five km from the Letseng mine, contains an estimated a total of 1.04-million carats to a depth of 300 meters.
Earlier this month, Lucapa announced the completion of the first sale for 2018 of alluvial diamonds from the Lulo Diamond Project in Angola. The company sold 4,170 carats of Lulo diamonds, achieving gross proceeds of $9.14 million (A$11.43 million), which according to the company represent “an exceptional average price per carat of $2,192”. The latest sale takes total sales of Lulo diamonds to $106.81 million at $2,118 per carat.
