PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner Lucapa Diamonds has reported A$7.6-million in revenue from the sale of its latest parcel of rough diamonds from its Mothae kimberlite mine, in Lesotho.
The company on Wednesday announced that 5 619 ct of diamonds had sold for $1 050/ct, with the sale including a 215 ct D-colour diamond and an 11 ct pink diamond.
“Since re-opening following the six-month Covid-19 suspension, Mothae has shown its quality with regular recoveries of large and high value diamonds leading to run-of-mine diamond prices above $1 000/ct for the second sale running,” said Lucapa MD Stephen Wetherall.
“This is some 75% above the average diamond price budgeted for Mothae in 2021 and the mine is still to accrete its 50% share of profits from the new cutting and polishing partnership arrangement.”
Wetherall noted that with the positive sentiment returning to the diamond sector, Lucapa was looking forward to operating the now expanded Mothae project.
The ASX-listed miner earlier this week announced the completion of the Mothae expansion, which increased nameplate capacity at Mothae by some 45%, from 1.1-million tonnes a year to around 1.6-million tonnes a year.
The upgraded processing plant is being re-commissioned and ramped-up to its increased capacity. This ramp-up process will likely be completed at the end of the month, and the processing plant is expected to operate at its new capacity from the beginning of the second quarter.