Mothae diamonds debut sale worth A$5.3 mn
Highest price achieved for Mothae diamond of US$36,664 per carat Lucapa Diamond reports the results from the first sale of diamonds from the new Mothae kimberlite plant in Lesotho. The parcel of 5,411 carats of rough diamonds sold at tender in Antwerp for a total of US$3.8 million or A$5.3 million. The diamonds were recovered during the plant ramp-up phase in Q4 2018 and in the first month of commercial mining operations at Mothae in January 2019. The sale represented an overall average price per carat of US$707 (A$987) for the total run of mine parcel. The highest price achieved for an individual Mothae diamond was US$36,664 per carat. As previously noted, the efficiency of the new Mothae plant in treating the near surface weathered material has resulted in the liberation of additional diamonds, primarily small stones below the plant’s 3mm bottom cut-off screen size. Most of these additional small diamonds are in the -11 and below sieve size fractions. W...