Lucapa nearly doubles Lulo resource

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company has reported a 90% increase in its diamond resource carats at its Lulo operation, in Angola, on the back of an independent valuation.

The company on Thursday told shareholders that external consultants Z Star Mineral Resource Consultants has estimated that the in-situ resource at Lulo stood at 80 400 carats.

This resource estimate did not include the more than 30 000 carats already recovered at Lulo over the last 19 months of mining, which sold for some $62-million.

Additionally, the average carat value for the Lulo diamonds have also increased by 17%, compared with the previous modeled estimate, Lucapa MD Stephen Wetherall said.

“Together with the significant positive diamond marketing reforms introduced in Angola, enabling producers like Lulo to achieve international market prices for their diamonds, the near doubling in in-situ resource carats in the upgraded Lulo diamond resource supports the Lulo partner’s plans to increase alluvial production in 2019,” Wetherall said.