Lucara Diamond Corp. recovered a 341.9 carat gem quality diamond from its Karowe Mine in Botswana,    while processing fragmental kimberlite from the central and south lobe interface.

“The Type IIa diamond shows exceptional colour and clarity and will be sold along with two other greater than 100 carat diamonds which have also been recovered,” the Company announced.

Meanwhile, the Company says, “Excellent progress continues to be made on the plant optimisation project at Karowe. Construction activities are essentially complete and commissioning activities of the final sections has commenced.”

Tracer testing of the new XRT diamond recovery machines has been completed, Lucara added.

 William Lamb, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The recovery of this magnificent stone once again confirms the quality of diamonds contained within the Karowe resource.”

Further, he added: “The surprise recovery of the 7.8 carat diamond from the very small quantity of material processed during commissioning of the XRT machines demonstrates the excellent recovery capability of this exciting technology. The final integration of the last sections into the process plant will provide improved mine planning flexibility and allow us to once again access material from all three lobes and more importantly provide the ability to mine sustainably from the high value south lobe in the future."