Lucapa Revenue Slides in Fourth Quarter

RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company's revenue plunged in the fourth quarter as the miner delayed sales while it negotiated a partnership agreement with manufacturer Safdico.The company did not garner any revenue from its Mothae mine in Lesotho while it concluded talks over a sales deal with the Graff subsidiary related to rough from that site. In addition, it held only one sale of goods from its Lulo mine in Angola, compared with the usual two.Sales from Lulo fell 32% year on year to $6.6 million for the three months ending December 31, Lucapa said last week. Sales volume from the deposit dropped 48% to 4,269 carats, with a 31% rise in the average price to $1,550 per carat partially offsetting the lower volumes. All of Lucapa's sales during the period went into its cutting and polishing partnership with Safdico. Under that deal, the manufacturer purchases the rough at full market value, and shares the proceeds of the polished sales with the miner.Lulo production for the period grew 55% to 6,447 carats. During the three months, Lucapa recovered 231 stones weighing more than 4.8 carats from Lulo, an increase of 93% over the same period in 2019. Those included 70 special-size stones - above 10.8 carats - the largest of which was a high-quality, 127-carat, white diamond. The miner also unearthed its first diamond weighing more than 100 carats from the MB46 portion of the mine, which is adjacent to the area where Lucapa is conducting its exploration for the primary source, or mother lode, of the deposit's diamonds.Production at the Mothae deposit fell 33% to 6,603 carats. Output slipped as the miner focused on ore from the southern lobe of the mine, which contained a mixed grade, Lucapa noted. The recoveries during the three months included 124 diamonds weighing more than 4.8 carats, a 26% decrease from the same period in 2019. Some 42 of those were special size, including a 101-carat, D-color stone.For the full year, Lucapa sold a total of 20,397 carats from Lulo for $28 million, at an average of $1,371 per carat, and had 4,324 carats in inventory. The miner sold 10,268 carats from Mothae for $4.1 million at an average of $402 per carat. It held 7,345 carats in inventory at that deposit. Overall, revenue dropped 42% to $32.1 million.Image: The 104-carat diamond found at the MB46 portion of the Lulo mine. (Lucapa Diamond Company)