Lucara Recovers 472 Carat Diamond
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday April 16, 2018 12:46
The new discovery follows the world’s second largest gem quality diamond found at the same mine two years ago. The 1,111-carat stone was recovered from its Karowe mine, about 500 km north of the capital, Gaborone. The stone is also the sixth largest gem quality diamonds ever mined.
According to the Global Mining Observer, Lucara Diamond Company insured the 1,109 carat diamond for $120 million (P1.3 billion)
Lucara says two other “exceptional” white diamonds - an 813 and 374-carat stones respectively - were also found at the Karowe mine.
According to CEO, Eira Thomas, this year at Karowe, they focused on the high value south lobe, which consistently delivers large high quality diamonds in excess of 10.8 carats in size.
“The 472 carat is the third largest diamond ever recovered from the mine and would be sold alongside other exceptional stones recovered since the beginning of the year as part of the first exceptional stone tender later in 2018,” he said.
The just completed first regular stone tender would be reported as part of the first quarter results in May this year.
In the first quarter of trading, the diamond company made 218 specials of 10.8 carats diamonds with four stones greater than 100 carats each.
In addition, the CEO said that Lucara continues to focus on maximising value at Karowe where a pre-feasibility study assessing the potential for going underground and extending mine-life from 2026 to 2036 is well underway and progressing on schedule for completion towards year end.
In February 2018, Lucara also announced the acquisition of Clara, a secure, digital, rough diamond sales platform that combines propriety analytics with existing cloud and block-chain technologies to modernise the current diamond supply chain.
“Commercialisation work has since commenced under a budget of approximately $2 million and it’s tracking on schedule for implementation using diamonds from Karowe beginning in August this year,” he said.