In a Press Release dated 05th March, 2018, Australian Securities Exchange listed Lucapa Diamond Company Limited (ASX: LOM) owners and operators of diamond mining assets in Angola, Lesotho, Botswana and Western Australia, has announced the realization of gross proceeds of US$1.7 million (A$2.1 million) by the sale of 2,072 carats of rough diamonds recovered from its prolific Lulo mine in Angola, the highest US$ per-carat alluvial diamond producer in the world.
The sale, the second rough diamond tender for the year 2018, which also included a 44-carat rough diamond, the largest in the parcel and a 1.9-carat vivid pink diamond, registered an average price per carat of US$804.
The first diamond tender for 2018 held in January realized a total of US$ 9.1 million, by the sale of 4,170 carats of Lulo alluvial diamonds achieving an average price of $2,192 per carat. Total proceeds realized by the two tenders so far for 2018 adds up to US$10.8 million (A$13.5 million) working out to an average price per carat of US$1,731.
Lucapa Diamond Company has made a good start for the year 2018, with the recoveries of several large diamonds in the first week and third week of January 2018 at the Lulo project. In the first week of January a 103-carat light brown rough diamond and an 83-carat Type IIa rough diamond were recovered from the Mining Block 8, followed by a 116-carat low-quality boart diamond and a 43-carat gem-quality yellow diamond, also from the same Alluvial Mining Block 8 at Lulo. The 43-carat yellow diamond is the largest gem-quality colored diamond recovered to date from Lulo
The Lulo project, situated 150km from Alrosa’s Catoca mine, the world’s fourth largest diamond mine, has become a consistent source of top-quality, D-color, Type-IIa diamonds, which account for less than 2% of all naturally occurring diamonds.
Lucapa Diamond Company has a 35-year license for Lulo, which in February 2016 produced the 404.2-carat white diamond, the “4th February Stone,” considered the largest diamond ever recovered in Angola and the biggest diamond ever found by an Australian company, which sold for US$16 million. In the year 2016, Lulo achieved total sales of US$51 million, working out to an average price-per-carat value of US$2,983, the highest $-per-carat run of mine diamond production in the world.
Lucapa also holds a 70% interest in the Lesotho-based Mothae project, located within 5 km of Gem Diamonds’ Letšeng mine, which last month yielded a 910-carat rough diamond, the fifth largest gem-quality rough diamond ever recovered.
In terms of production Angola is the world’s No.4 diamond producer by value and No.6 by volume. Angola’s diamond industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is now successfully emerging from a long period of difficulties and uncertainty, caused by a prolonged civil war from 1975 to 2002.
