At Lucapa Diamond Company Limited’s Lulo Diamond Project in Angola, the large diamonds keep coming up. The latest cache recovered from the prolific Mining Block 8 consists of seven large diamonds. The two largest amongst them – one 83 carat stone and one 68 carat stone – are both Type IIa gems; and there are five other +50 carat diamonds also in the package.

All the seven special diamonds are slated to be included in the next Lulo sale, scheduled for September 2017.

“The latest large diamond recoveries follow the return of alluvial mining activities to Mining Block 8 at Lulo, which has been a prolific producer of large and premium-value diamonds including Angola’s biggest recorded diamond - the 404 carat 4th February Stone, which sold for US$ 16 million,” the Company announced.  

Lucapa noted that the strong cash flow generated from the sale of Lulo diamonds has enabled Sociedade Mineira Do Lulo (SML) (Lucapa 40% owner and operator), the company managing the Lulo mine, to repay loan funding advanced by Lucapa to develop the alluvial exploration and mining operations; and has also supported pro-rata distributions to the Lulo partners (which include along with Lucapa, Empresa Nacional de Diamantes E.P. (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas).

Accordingly, Lucapa has already received US$ 3.8 million of the US$ 4 million loan repayment approved by SML; while the remaining amount is in the process of being repatriated.

“As previously advised, Lucapa has left its US$ 1.6 million share of the pro-rata SML distribution in Angola to fund the Lulo kimberlite exploration programme, which aims to identify the primary hard-rock sources of the exceptional Lulo alluvial diamonds being recovered, which achieved the highest per carat sale prices in the world in 2016,” Lucapa stated.

The exploration programme involves three rigs drilling kimberlite targets which were upgraded and re-classified from the results of an extensive Time Domain Electromagnetic (TDEM) survey flown over the Cacuilo Valley area, where the Lulo alluvial mining operations are focused, Lucapa said.

Pic Cap: Latest large diamonds recovered at Lulo
Courtesy: Lucapa Diamond Co Ltd