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Lucapa diamond sales reach $3m in Q2

7th July 2016

By: David Oliveira

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company, which owns and operates the Lulo diamond project in Angola, achieved two alluvial diamond parcel sales weighing a total of 2 670 ct, during the quarter ending June 2016, and achieved gross proceeds of $3-million at an average price of $1 132/ct, the company reported on Thursday.

Lucapa’s 2016 half-year diamond sales amounted to $26.2-million at an average price of $5 686/ct. The average price, excluding the 404 ct stone recovered in the first quarter of 2016, stands at $2 421/ct.

As with all previous Lulo diamond sales, the sales were conducted in Luanda by the Angolan government’s diamond marketing division, Sodiam.

The Lulo partners, which include Lucapa, Endiama and Rosas & Petalas, expected to conduct at least two diamond sales in the quarter ending September 2016. The unsold Lulo diamond inventory stood at 1 219 ct as at June 30.

ALLUVIAL DIAMOND MINING
Alluvial diamond mining at Lulo was mainly focused on Mining Block 6, with significant trial mining of the E46 area also continuing during the second quarter.

Late in the quarter access was gained and mining resumed at Mining Block 8, where the record 404 ct diamond was recovered in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Lucapa’s additional investment in earthmoving equipment, which took place in the second half of 2015, had enabled the company to increase total mining capacity at Lulo above 20 000 bulk cubic metres (bcm) a month during the dry mining months. Mining capacity during the traditional wet-season months averaged 12 000 bcm a month.

Notwithstanding the expected reduction in mining capacity and recoveries during the wet season, Lucapa’s strategy to deliver quality versus quantity resulted in $25.9-million in revenue being generated from sales during wet-season mining.

A total of 36 753 bcm of alluvial gravels were treated through the 150-ton-per-hour diamond plant during the second quarter, representing a 113% increase in throughput compared with the second quarter in 2015.

A total of 2 581 ct were recovered during the quarter under review at a slightly lower grade of seven carats per hundred cubic meters, including 30 special diamonds of up to 88 ct and a 13 ct yellow diamond, representing an 80% increase in recoveries compared with the same quarter in 2015.

The average size of the diamonds recovered increased from 0.8 ct a stone to 1.3 ct a stone, despite the bottom cutoff screen size in the plant of 1.5 mm remaining unchanged.

KIMBERLITE EXPLORATION
The three-year Lulo kimberlite exploration programme, which was signed by all partners during the quarter under review, aimed to locate the primary source, or sources, of the large premium-quality alluvial diamonds being mined at Lulo.

To date, about 300 kimberlite targets had been identified in two provinces within the Lulo concession, of which about 100 have been classified as proven or probable kimberlites, with five confirmed as diamond-bearing pipes through the recovery of macro and micro diamonds.

The area around Mining Blocks 8 and 6 remained the priority focus of the kimberlite exploration programme during the second quarter, after geophysical gravity and electromagnetic surveys conducted in the previous quarter at the L259 target successfully defined a 78 ha to 108 ha body consistent with the near-surface expression of a kimberlite pipe, or its crater.

L259 is located below Mining Block 8 and close to Mining Block 6, which have been regular sources of large premium-quality diamonds.

Late in the quarter under review, Lucapa and its partners commenced with a kimberlite drilling programme following the delayed arrival on site of a team of specialist drillers.

Drill sites were prepared for ten scheduled holes to be drilled at L259 in the initial drilling phase. Drilling has commenced on L259 and will continue throughout 2016 on the high-priority targets.

Other kimberlite targets close to L259 that are scheduled to be drilled include L13, L15, E217 and L248. Diamondiferous kimberlites L19 and L46 and proximal kimberlite L18 are also scheduled to be drilled.

The Lulo kimberlite drilling programme is being conducted using the mobile Sedidrill rig. The diamond rig can drill 61 mm diameter holes to extract core samples from a depth of up to 70 m. The Sedidrill rig also has auger drilling capacity to assist the Lulo geological team in expanding and defining the alluvial resource areas.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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