RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company Ltd. recovered an exceptional 63.05-carat, type IIa diamond from alluvial mining operations at its Lulo diamond concession in Angola. The large stone was produced from mining area 31 at Lulo, which is north of the company's diamond processing plant. The diamond is the third-largest to be recovered at Lulo, with the two largest weighing 131.40 carats and 95.45 carats, which were recovered during bulk sampling south of the processing plant.
The 63.05-carat stone is also the largest to be recovered since Lucapa and its partners began commercial alluvial diamond operations in January.
Lucapa's CEO, Stephen Wetherall, said, “This exceptional recovery further underlines the potential of the Lulo diamond field to consistently produce large gems of exceptional quality across the whole mining license area.” Wetherall added that Lucapa and its partners are preparing to mine at the higher-grade BLK 08 license once it has completed necessary overburden stripping. BLK 08 was the location were Lucapa produced the 131-carat diamond.
“Given the diamond mining results achieved to date have mirrored our initial estimates derived from our bulk sampling grades, we are confident of recovering more exceptional diamonds from this higher grade area,” he said.
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