PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner Lucapa has completed construction of the crushing circuit of the standalone kimberlite bulk sampling plant at its Lulo operation, in Angola.
The full standalone plant is scheduled for completion and commissioning this quarter, after which, the project’s joint venture partners will be expediting and processing the kimberlite bulk samples at a significantly higher rate of approximately four kimberlite bulk samples a quarter.
The key objective of this kimberlite bulk sampling programme is to identify the primary source pipe of the exceptional large and high-value diamonds being recovered in the alluvial mining operations and to assist in a preliminary economic assessment of the potential source discoveries.
“With the injection of additional funding into the exploration programme post the pandemic impact on progress, the advanced Lulo kimberlite exploration programme will now deliver kimberlite bulk sampling results on a very regular basis. The partners look forward to furthering our work on the priority kimberlites and to identifying potentially economic sources,” said Lucapa MD Stephen Wetherall.
Lulo has been in commercial production since 2015.