Mothae to increase 45% carats recovery!

Lucapa Diamond on expansion spree! 

Lucapa Diamond is on the expansion plan and financing of the 70% owned Mothae kimberlite diamond project in Lesotho, Southern Africa. Mothae became Lucapa’s second producing mine following the commissioning of the mine and its 1.1Mtpa processing plant in January 2019. 

The Mothae kimberlite resource contains large and high-quality diamonds, the occurrence of which, make it the 2nd highest average US$ per carat kimberlite mine in the world at between US$500 and US$750 per carat on average. More than 75% of the revenue is derived from +4.8 carat diamonds. Mothae recovered 3, +100 carat diamonds in 2019. 

The Mothae JORC Classified Resource was recently updated and contains an Indicated and Inferred JORC Resource of 48.5Mt and ~1.2 million carats. The update resulted in a ~280% increase in the Indicated Resource. 

After 16 months of actual operating results to inform future planning, Lucapa and its partners were investigating the potential to expand the throughput and capacity of the Mothae kimberlite mine. 

The investigations have been completed and the funding to implement the lower cost expansion plan proposed successfully secured. 

The expansion by ~45% to 1.6Mtpa in 2020/21 with plant modifications and infrastructure upgrades should materially increase production, revenues and due to economies of scale, improve unit operating costs and deliver improvements to earnings. The GoL have signed a Heads of Agreement with Lucapa and Mothae for the implementation of a new marketing channel in addition to the tender and/ or auction channel, which will pave the way for accessing value-adding cutting & polishing margins. 

Lucapa Managing Director Stephen Wetherall said “with the completion of this Mothae expansion, Lucapa will have successfully delivered on its group production growth target of 200%. Lucapa looks forward to the returns expected to be generated from both expanded mining operations and growing shareholder value through cash flow generation and the kimberlite exploration program.”