Paragon Diamonds, a diamond development and production company with operations in Lesotho, Botswana and Zambia has conducted a successful sale of stones recovered from the bulk sampling at the Lemphanekimberlite in Lesotho. The company reports that these were mainly ‘fancy yellow’ diamonds and some of them achieved values as high as US$2,500 a carat.

The sale was part of a marketing exercise to assess demand for the products that the mine in Lesotho is expected to yield during the fast approaching Stage-1 of the extraction of an estimated one million tonnes of ore.

Independent reports have projected the possibility of recovery of over 100 diamonds larger than nine carats, including stones over 100 carats in size.

Paragon chairman Philip FalzonSantManduca said: “We are highly confident Lemphane will provide Paragon with a source of large high value diamonds for years to come.”