Lucara Diamond Corp reported a 47% increase in gross revenues from US$ 180.5 million a year ago to US$ 265.5 million during 2014 with sales totalling 412,136 carats. The increase was largely driven by higher prices received for the Karowe diamonds and a larger number of carats being sold in the large exceptional stones tenders, which contributed US$ 135.6 million to revenues, the company said in a statement.

While the average price worked out to US$ 644 per carat, this was boosted by the average price of exceptional stone sales of US$ 32,471 per carat in 2014 (2013: US$ 24,290 per carat), with the remaining tenders achieving US$ 318 per carat (2013: US$ 249 per carat).

The statement also said that performance at the Karowe mine was in line with forecast for the year in terms of ore and waste mined and carats recovered. Karowe recovered 815 special stones (+10.8 carats; 2013 recovery of 732 specials) during the year. This included 27 stones greater than 100 carats (2013: 17 stones) and 4 stones over 200 carats (2013: 4 stones). The plant optimisation programme is advancing to plan and the plant is expected be commissioned during Q2 2015 within the US$ 55 million forecast cost.

William Lamb, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "We are very pleased that our second full year of operations saw us deliver on our major commitments to our shareholders through operational delivery which resulted in us selling over 412,000 carats for $266 million at an operating margin in excess of 80%.”