JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Angola-focused miner Lucapa Diamond completed three sales in the quarter ended December 31, generating revenue of A$8.1-million, the highest quarterly sales result achieved to date.
The average selling price of A$2 141/ct was also the highest quarterly average achieved since mining started in January 2015.
The ASX-listed company further reported that, despite a mechanical issue with the diamond plant’s dense medium separation module, which impacted processing for two weeks, paired with heavy rains, it still uncovered 28 special diamonds, weighing more than 10.8 ct each, during the quarter, with the two biggest diamonds recovered weighing 74.5 ct and 66.3 ct.
Total diamond recoveries for the quarter amounted to 2 151 ct.
Further, Lucapa noted an average quarter-on-quarter stone size increase to 1.35 ct, while processing rates increased by 173% to 82 410 m3 in the second half of 2015, as the delivery of additional earthmoving equipment enabled mining operations to be scaled up.
Mining of gravels also continued during this period of plant downtime and, as at December 31, almost 9 231 m3 of diamond-bearing alluvial gravels were stockpiled for processing through the diamond plant.
Excluding this, 38 401 m3 of alluvial gravels were processed in the December quarter.