Canada’s Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC) continues to find gem-quality, coloured diamonds at its Karowe mine in Botswana, which in April yielded the 1,758-carat Sewelô (meaning “rare find”) diamond, the largest ever recovered in the African country.
The Vancouver-based miner has now recovered a 9.74 carat blue and a 4.13 carat pink diamond from direct milling of the South Lobe, the area that yielded the famous 1,111-carat “Lesedi La Rona” in 2015. The announcement comes on the heels of last week’s display of a 123 carat gem quality, top white, Type II diamond, found at the same section of the mine. It also follows the recent sale of a 2.24 carat blue for $347,222 per carat.
Karowe, which began commercial operations in 2012, has this year yielded 22 diamonds larger than 100 carats, eight of them exceeding 200 carats. Since the start of the year, the miner has sold 19 diamonds each with an individual price in excess of $1 million at its quarterly tender sales. This includes seven diamonds that fetched more than $2 million each, and one diamond that carried a final price tag of over $8 million.
“Lucara is extremely pleased with the recovery of these rare, sizeable, fancy coloured diamonds, which have the potential to contribute meaningful value to our regular production of large, high-value type IIa diamonds,” Chief Executive, Eira Thomas, said in the statement.
The precious rocks will be put up for sale in December, during the company’s fourth-quarter tender. Rival Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL) also found a blue diamond this week. The 20.08 carat gem-quality diamond, Type IIb specimen was unearthed at the company’s iconic Cullinan mine, in South Africa.
Lucara, which has focused efforts on the prolific Botswana mine this year, is close to completing a feasibility study into potential underground production and life-of-mine expansion at Karowe.
Source: mining.com
