Lucapa to produce high-value diamonds!

Lucapa successfully built, commissioned and

Commenced commercial production!

Recently at the AGM 2019, Miles Kennedy, Chairman (Non-Executive) - Lucapa Diamond Company Ltd said, Lucapa successfully built, commissioned and commenced commercial production. Lucapa’s goal is to grow as a producer. The company has to produce high-value diamonds on a sustainable and profitable basis from our two African diamond mines, Lulo in Angola and our new Mothae mine in the mountainous diamond-rich Kingdom of Lesotho.

Despite being in commercial production for less than five months, Mothae has already proven itself to be one of a select few global mines producing large and high-quality diamonds. It has produced what regular Specials, rare Type IIa whites and fancy coloured gems. Mothae diamonds achieved stunning individual prices of up to US$36,000 per carat in the February commercial tender in Antwerp.

Mothae was a trophy +100 carat diamond. This duly arrived before the ink dried in the form of a gem-quality 126 carat diamond, recovered last week from one of the supposed lower-margin zones of the kimberlite pipe. The 126 carat diamond arrived after the production cut-off for the next Mothae tender of circa 7,000 carats, which is scheduled to be concluded in Antwerp within days.

For Mothae to produce such results so early in its mine life is tremendously encouraging considering ore to date has been predominantly sourced from the previously considered lower-margin zones of the Mothae kimberlite pipe.

The higher-margin diamond zones that lie beneath the water in the southern pit, which will be accessed in H2, constitute about 77% of the total ore currently planned to be mined from the open pit. As such, Lucapa will wait until mining has transitioned to these zones properly in Q3 before updating its operational guidance and mine plan for Mothae.