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Lulo Mine Delivers Ninth Diamond Over 100 Carats
Lucapa also announced the discovery of an 83-carat diamond from the Angolan mine.
Lucapa has announced the recovery of two large diamonds from its Lulo mine in Angola, a 103-carat light brown diamond (left) and 83-carat Type IIa diamond (right).
Lucapa, Angola--Lucapa Diamond Company has announced the recovery of its ninth diamond weighing over 100 carats from the Lulo Diamond Project in Angola.
The 103-carat diamond is light brown in color and was discovered at Mining Block 8, as was an 83-carat Type IIa stone.
In November, Lucapa discovered two “exceptional” Type IIa D color stones weighing 20 and 18 carats.
Along with partners Empresa Nacional de Diamantes E.P. and Rosas & Petalas, Lucapa began mining at Lulo in 2015. The 404-carat “4 de Fevereiro” diamond is the largest recovered there so far and the 27th largest diamond on record worldwide.
De Grisogono acquired the stone with Nemesis International, polished it and set it into a necklace, which sold at Christie’s last fall for $33 million, though its sale was not without controversy.
The Lulo Diamond Project is an alluvial deposit, and Lucapa said that it continues to search for the kimberlite source of the stones. The miner is currently using three drill rigs in its exploration.
Lucapa also said that after acquiring a 70 percent stake in the Mothae kimberlite project in Lesotho a year ago, it will go into production in the second half of 2018. A 150-ton-per-hour diamond treatment plan equipped with XRT technology is currently underway only 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from Gem Diamond’s Letšeng mine, which is said to be the highest dollar-per-carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.
Just this week, Gem Diamonds announced the recovery of two D-color, Type IIa stones each weighing over 100 carats from the site.
Besides its venture into Lesotho, Lucapa is also actively exploring at its Brooking diamond project in the West Kimberley lamproite province of Western Australia and the Orapa Area F project in the Orapa diamond field in Botswana.
The miner will offer 25 “special” diamonds recovered from Lulo’s mining blocks 8 and 6 in its first sale of 2018, including a 129-carat and 78-carat diamond, both of which are D color, Type IIa stones.
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