Australia’s Lucapa Diamond has recovered a 203 carat diamond at its prolific Lulo mine in Angola, the fifth largest ever found at the operation.
The diamond is also the third 100 carat plus stone found at Lulo this year.
Lucapa said the high quality, type IIa diamond was recovered during the processing of run of mine stockpiled ore and its recovery follows those of a 162 and a 116 carat diamonds on successive days last month.
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.
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 one of the largest pink diamonds in history: a 170-carat stone from the Lulo mine in Angola.
The type IIa rough, named the Lulo Rose, is “believed to be the largest pink diamond recovered in the last 300 years,” Lucapa said Wednesday. It is also the fifth-largest diamond from Lulo, and the deposit’s 27th over 100 carats since commercial production began in 2015. Lucapa plans to sell the diamond through an international tender conducted by Angolan state diamond-marketing company Sodiam, it noted.
“The record-breaking Lulo diamond field has again delivered a precious and large gemstone, this time an extremely rare and beautiful pink diamond,” said José Manuel Ganga Júnior, chairman of the board of state-owned Endiama, one of Lucapa’s partners in the deposit. “It is a significant day for the Angolan diamond industry.”
In addition to the pink, Lulo is also the source of Angola’s largest diamond, a 404-carat rough named the 4th February Stone.
Lucapa has begun bulk sampling at “priority kimberlites” as it searches for the primary source of Lulo’s diamonds, managing director Stephen Wetherall added.
Lucapa Diamond Company, owner and operator of the Lulo mine in Angola, will sell seven large and exceptional Lulo diamonds an “historic inaugural international tender under Angola’s new diamond marketing laws” in January.
The auction, which will be held at the offices of Sodiam Angolan state diamond marketing company in Luanda, will feature “major international diamantaires and large stone manufacturers”. The seven Lulo diamonds to be offered at tender include Type IIa D colour white gems of up to 114 carats and a 46 carat pink diamond.
In its latest diamond sale, held in late November, Lucapa raked in $4.2 million from the sale of 3,411 carats. The sale achieved an average price per carat of $1,220. The sale has brought the total year-to-date sales of Lulo diamonds to $24.5 million at an average price of $1,353 per carat.
