Lucapa recovers first diamonds from Lesotho's Mothae mine

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - ASX-listed Lucapa Diamond Company has announced its first diamond recoveries from the Mothae kimberlite mine, which it owns in partnership with the government of Lesotho.

The largest of the diamonds recovered in the first rest run was 6.6 ct.

The diamonds were recovered through the existing bulk sampling plant and infrastructure at Mothae, which has been refurbished, as part of the previously announced bulk sampling programme that is designed to provide additional resource and diamond data to expand the life-of-mine while generating early cash flows.

The initial diamond recoveries, which were sourced from residual material and kimberlite stockpiles that are not included in the Mothae Joint Ore Reserves Committee resource, were observed during a site visit to Mothae by Lucapa representatives, advisers, brokers and investors following last week's Mining Indaba, in Cape Town.

Construction of the new 150 t/h processing plant, including an XRT large-diamond recovery circuit, continues and remains on schedule for full commissioning and commercial production in the second half of 2018.