Lucara Diamond Corp. said it has recovered a 472 carat, top light brown gem diamond which is the third largest diamond ever recovered from its 100% owned Karowe Diamond Mine located in Botswana.
The company said on year-to-date it has recovered 218 specials (diamonds >10.8 carats), the 3rd highest quarterly count on record including 4 stones greater than 100 carats each and at least 8 EST qualifying diamonds. Lucara added that first regular stone tender (RST) was completed in March and will be reported as part of the Q1 results on May 8, 2018.
“In 2018, mining at Karowe is focused in the high value south lobe, which consistently delivers large, high quality diamonds in excess of 10.8 carats in size,” Lucara CEO, Eira Thomas said. “The 472 carat is the third largest diamond ever recovered from the mine and will be sold alongside other exceptional stones recovered since the beginning of the year as part of the first exceptional stone tender (EST) later in 2018.”
Lucara said it continues to focus on maximising value at Karowe, where a pre-feasibility study assessing the potential for going underground and extending mine-life from 2026 to 2036 is well underway and progressing on schedule for completion towards year-end.
In February 2018, Lucara also announced the acquisition of Clara, a secure, digital, rough diamond sales platform that combines proprietary analytics with existing cloud and blockchain technologies to modernise the current diamond supply chain. Commercialisation work has since commenced, under a budget of approximately US$2 million, and is tracking on schedule for implementation using diamonds from Karowe, beginning in August 2018.