Lucapa Diamond Company has sold six diamonds recovered from the Lulo mine, in Angola, in a special tender for $12.4-million.
The diamonds totalled 447 ct and consisted of five white Type IIa diamonds, as well as a pink diamond.
The average price per carat was about $27 700.
MD and CEO Nick Selby deems the tender result pleasing. “Our alluvial project, in Angola, continues to deliver fantastic diamonds that are always in demand through all market cycles and achieve very competitive values.”
Lucapa today (25 June) announced the sale of its 70 per cent stake in the Mothae mine, in Lesotho, to a local contractor for a nominal sum.
The Australian miner said it wanted to to focus on its core assets in Africa, where it has a 40 per cent stake in the Lulo alluvial mine, in Angola, and in Australia.
Mothae has produced over 150,000 carats since it started commercial production in 2019, bringing in more than $100m in revenue.
Lucapa says it will sell its stake in stake in Mothae Diamonds (Pty) Ltd to Lephema Executive Transport (Pty) Ltd, which has provided it with long-term contract mining services, for A$10,000 (US$6,660).
Mothae Diamonds, which owns the site, will pay Lucapa A$1m (US$666,000) in outstanding technical services payments.
“This agreement is the result of a period of offer and negotiation involving Lucapa and several interested parties,” said Lucapa managing director and CEO Nick Selby.
“(Lephema) Executive has a successful history with the Mothae Diamond Mine, having provided long-term contract mining services. Lucapa wanted to, as far as possible, see
this mine continue to operate and Executive are best placed to achieve this.
“The signing of this agreement is a key step towards Lucapa streamlining its portfolio and executing the new strategy which will focus on assets in Australia and Angola”.
Mothae has indicated resources of 180,000 carats and inferred resources of 960,000 carats, according to December 2023 figures provided by Lucapa, with a modelled per carat value of $606.
Lucapa said in its sales material that Mothae has recovered 13 +100ct diamonds (largest Type IIa gem 213cts), and 10 diamonds valued at over $1m.
Lucapa Diamond announced Tuesday that together with its Lulo alluvial mine partners, Endiama and Rosas & Petalas, the company has recovered a 195 carat Type IIa diamond from its Lulo mine in Angola.
The diamond is the sixth largest and the 44th +100 carat diamond to be recovered from the Lulo mine, the company said, adding that the 195 carat Type IIa diamond is the fourth +100 diamond to be recovered at Lulo this year.
The mine, which hosts the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds, began commercial production in January 2015. Only a year later, it delivered the largest ever diamond recovered in Angola a 404 carat white stone later named the “4th February Stone”.
Lucapa has a 40% stake in the Lulo mine. The rest is held by Angola’s national diamond company (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas, a private entity.
Angola is the world’s fifth diamond producer by value and sixth by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully being liberalized.
Nick Selby will take on the role of interim CEO at Lucapa Diamond Company when Stephen Wetherall steps down as managing director at the end of the month.
Selby, who has been with the miner since 2017, is currently executive director of operations. He will lead the company while it searches for a replacement, Lucapa said Monday.
Wetherall will continue to work with Lucapa as an independent consultant following his exit, helping to further the miner’s diamond marketing and downstream initiatives. He joined the company — which operates the Lulo mine in Angola and the Mothae deposit in Lesotho — in 2016. Wetherall was instrumental in creating a manufacturing deal with Graff unit Safdico, and in Lucapa’s acquisition of the Merlin diamond project in Australia.
“I have thrived on the challenges put to me by the board and shareholders,” said Wetherall in the Monday statement. “We have together navigated the company successfully through a difficult pandemic, repaid all the project interest-bearing debt, successfully delivered and expanded two mining operations now generating solid margins, positioned the company for growth with future production from Merlin, and our kimberlite exploration program at Lulo is at an advanced and exciting phase. This is an appropriate time for me to take on other challenges.”
Lucapa has recovered a 180.87-carat Type IIa white diamond at its Lulo alluvial mine, in Angola.
It’s the second +100 carat diamond of the year so far. In February it found a 150-carat Type IIa D-color white diamond.
And it’s the 37th +100 carat since since the Australian miner began commercial production at Lulo in 2015.
Last November the 170.2-carat Lulo Rose, believed to be the largest pink diamond found in the last 300 years, was sold at tender for an undisclosed sum.
Lucapa, which also operates the Mothae mine, in Lesotho, has reported encouraging exploration results from its ongoing exploration program to discover the primary kimberlite source at Lulo.
Pic of the 180.87-carat Type IIa white diamond, courtesy Lucapa
ASX-listed Lucapa Diamond Company has fully repaid all interest-bearing loans that it borrowed from gold exploration and mining company Equigold and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC).
Lucapa has repaid the final instalment of $1.3-million in principal and interest on the original $15-million Equigold debt, which was raised in 2018.
In addition, Lucapa subsidiary Mothae Diamonds recently made its final interest payment of R7.3-million to the IDC, with the IDC loan now also fully repaid.
Lucapa is now interest-bearing debt free, having repaid about A$30-million in debt and interest over an 18-month period
The company said in a July 4 statement that it would seek to have all securities with respect to those loans released.
Lucapa owns the Lulo mine, in Angola, and the Mothae mine, in Lesotho, and is developing the Merlin project, in Australia. It also explores for diamonds in Australia, Angola, Botswana and Lesotho.
Diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company has sold seven diamonds from its Lulo mine in Angola for $30.1 million, equating to over $39,000 per carat.
The company and its partners, Endiama E.P. and Rosas & Petalas, placed the “special sized” diamonds on international tender earlier this month. Together, the diamonds weighed a combined 767 carats.
The sold diamonds include a 170-carat fancy-coloured diamond dubbed the ‘Lulo Rose’ alongside three white Type IIa diamonds of over 100 carats and three other special-sized white Type IIa stones.
In late September, Lucapa announced it had recovered its 30th diamond of over 100 carats from Lulo, which has been in commercial production since 2015.
The company kicked off commercial production from its Mothae mine in Lesotho in 2019.
Meanwhile, Lucapa said it was continuing to explore for potential primary-source kimberlites or lamproites with its partners across the Lulo concession in Angola, the Brooking project in Australia, and the Orapa Area F project in Botswana.
Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered a 160-carat, high-quality rough from its Lulo mine in Angola, the sixth-largest stone the deposit has yielded.
The company found the type IIa diamond at the same alluvial mining block from which it unearthed a 170-carat pink — the Lulo Rose — in July, Lucapa said last week. The new addition marks the 28th diamond over 100 carats from Lulo.
Recently, Lucapa transitioned to mining rough from the lezirias, or flood plain area, of the site, which has led to the recovery of larger diamonds, it said. In the past two months, the miner has found more than 100 special stones — those weighing over 10.8 carats — at the deposit, including four type IIa rough diamonds weighing 99, 81, 74 and 66 carats.
Lucapa Diamond Company yesterday announced the recovery of a 204 carat diamond from the Mothae mine in Lesotho.
According to the company’s statement, the 204 carat white stone is the eighth +100 carat diamond and third +200 carat to be recovered from the Mothae mine since commercial mining commenced in January 2019, underlining its unique large stone nature.
Lucapa Diamond Company is an ASX listed diamond miner and explorer with assets in Africa and Australia. It has interests in two producing diamond mines in Angola (Lulo) and Lesotho (Mothae).
“The large, high-value diamonds produced from these two niche African diamond mines attract some of the highest prices per carat for rough diamonds globally,” the company said.
The Lulo mine has been in commercial production since 2015, while the Mothae mine commenced commercial production in 2019.
