Special diamond recoveries from Mothae
Lucapa Diamond Company reported the recovery of another Special (individual diamonds > 10.8 carats) from the ongoing bulk sampling program at the Mothae diamond mine in Lesotho. The 11.88 carat diamond was recently recovered from the North zone and is the first Special recovered from that section of the Mothae kimberlite pipe from current bulk sampling.
Significantly, the latest recovery at Mothae means all three zones sampled have produced Specials - an 89 carat was the largest special recovered from the South-East zone and a 25 carat was also recovered from the Neck zone during the May & June! The Mothae kimberlite pipe is a high-quality diamond resource located within 5km of Letšeng, the highest US$ per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.
Lucapa Managing Director Stephen Wetherall said the Special diamond recoveries were extremely encouraging and validated Lucapa’s decision to commit to a concurrent bulk sampling program to improve the resource as the new 150 tonne per hour. Mothae commercial diamond plant was being built.
“The concurrent Mothae bulk sampling program was planned to provide additional data over and above the information used to compile the original JORC resource. Certain areas of the kimberlite pipe which hadn’t historically been sampled or where there had been very limited historical testing, were thought to be underestimated as a result.
At the time of acquisition, we believed there was much upside here and this program is designed to deliver that upside,” said Mr Wetherall. “To have already recovered Special sized diamonds from early sampling tonnages in all three of these areas gives us great confidence we can achieve this goal. It also adds to our excitement which remains on track for commercial diamond production later this year to complement the high-value production from our Lulo mine in Angola.”
