Let??eng Sees Large-Diamond Recovery

RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has recovered two large rough diamonds at itsLet??eng mine in Lesotho, it said Monday. The "high-quality," type-IIa stones weigh 117 (pictured) and 110carats, and both have D color, the company noted. The London-based miner'sshare price jumped about 6% in early trading following the announcement. "While we do not know the final value of the stones, it islikely that good-quality, type-IIa diamonds could fetch more than $25,000 percarat," analysts Des Kilalea and Tim Huff of investment bank Canaccord Genuity said in an updatethe same day. "The gradual improvement in Let??eng's output of large whitestones should, we think, see the share price stronger today. It also seems toindicate that the trend back toward large recoveries which emerged in [2017]remains on track." Last year, Gem Diamonds found at least seven diamondsweighing 100 carats or more, after it began extracting ore from a higher-gradepart of Let??eng. In 2016, the mine yielded only five stones of that size.