VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Lucapa Diamonds has published a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource estimate for the Mothae kimberlite pipe, in Lesotho.
The Mothae project is located about 5 km from Gem Diamonds’ Letšeng mine.
The resource estimate, prepared by Johannesburg-based consulting company MSA Group, included an indicated and inferred resource of 38.96-million tonnes at an average grade of 2.7 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht), containing 1.04-million carats to a depth of 300 m.
MSA has modelled the Mothae kimberlite to a total depth of 500 m below surface, corresponding to a total estimated 77.4-million tonnes.
The indicated resource is 2.39-million tonnes at an average grade of 3 cpht, with the balance of 36.57-million tonnes at a grade of 2.7 cpht classified as inferred.
The resource estimate assigns an average value of $1 063/ct, which the company ascribes to the presence of high-value Type IIa diamonds.