Lucara to Hold Debut Sale on Clara Platform

RAPAPORT… Lucara Diamond Corp. will launch its first sale in November
using its new digital platform that allows customers to obtain the exact rough diamonds
they need, it said Monday.

The miner will upload a variety of diamonds to its Clara
system, including stones from its Karowe mine in Botswana. It will also offer rough
from other sellers, ranging from 1 to 15 carats in higher color grades and
qualities. A small number of buyers that have signed up for the program — including
diamond manufacturers and jewelers — will then input their polished-diamond requirements
into the system, which Clara will run through a matching cycle.

“After several months of intense commercialization efforts,
which are tracking on schedule and under budget, we are excited to be moving
forward with our first sale,” said Lucara CEO Eira Thomas. “Clara is a scalable
business solution for the entire diamond industry that is long overdue and
necessary to modernize, streamline and increase consumer confidence in the
marketplace.”

The miner acquired the digital-sales platform in February, at
the same time that Clara shareholder Eira Thomas became CEO at Lucara. In
August, the company partnered with Sarine Technologies to provide tracking
solutions for stones on the platform using Sarine’s Galaxy inclusion mapping,
which creates a digital fingerprint containing information about a diamond’s
attributes.

Lucara will continue to sell diamonds through its regular
tenders as well, with Clara supplementing those sales.

The miner will use feedback from initial Clara participants to
improve the system, after which it will open the platform to other producers
and manufacturers.

Image: Karowe mine, Botswana. (Lucara Diamond Corp.)