Lucapa Diamond Company Limited recently announced an updated JORC Classified Inferred Alluvial Diamond Resource for the Lulo diamond mine in Angola (Lulo Diamond Resource).

External consultants Z Star Mineral Resource Consultants (Pty) Ltd (Z Star) of Cape Town, South Africa independently estimated and reconciled the Lulo Diamond Resource on a depletion and addition basis as at 31 December 2018 by updating the previous Lulo Diamond Resource dated 31 May 2017.

The Company said that the updated Lulo Diamond Resource was estimated after accounting for:

• 19 months of mining depletion at Lulo to 31 December 2018, during which time >30,000 carats of diamonds were recovered and sold for ~US$62 million

• The definition of additional resources and improving knowledge on existing resource areas from an extensive ongoing resource-definition drilling and sampling program which included an additional 4,200 auger holes (36,000 metres drilled); and

• Diamond sales at prices above the previous resource estimate dated 31 May 2017

Despite the depletion of carats as a result of mining operations as referred to above, “the updated Lulo Diamond Resource contains a 90% increase of in-situ carats to 80,400”, Lucapa reported.

This figure is more than four times higher than Lulo’s production of 19,196 carats in its fourth year of commercial production in calendar year 2018.   

“In addition, the average US$ per carat value for Lulo diamonds modelled by Z Star in the updated Lulo Diamond Resource is US$ 1,420 per carat, a 17% increase on the previous modelled estimate of US$ 1,215 per carat,” Lucapa noted.

Till date, revenue from sales of Lulo diamonds totals approximately US$ 141 million at an average price per carat of about US$ 2,100.

Lucapa Managing Director Stephen Wetherall commented: “Together with the significant positive diamond marketing reforms introduced in Angola enabling producers like Lulo to achieve international market prices for their diamonds, the near doubling of in situ resource carats in the upgraded Lulo Diamond Resource supports the Lulo partners’ plans to increase alluvial production in 2019.”  

Lucapa noted that as reported earlier (in November 2018) the auger drilling programme was successful in defining new alluvial sources of gravels in the flood plains (leziria areas) along the Cacuilo River valley within the Lulo concession. “While exploration has continued in these extensive flood plain areas throughout Q1 2019, only the portion of alluvial gravels defined by drilling in these new areas up to 31 December 2018 has been included by Z Star in the updated Lulo Diamond Resource,” Lucapa stated.

The Company said the resource-definition auger drilling programme will continue   throughout 2019; while presently, exploration targets of 250,000 - 300,000 bank cubic metres of alluvial gravels having already been identified.