In the first four days of mining at the BLK_08 area at the Lulo Diamond Concession, Lucapa Diamond Company Limited recovered five large special diamonds weighing 10.8 carats and above. The Lulo Diamond Concession is located in Angola.

The five recoveries include individual stones weighing 53.2 carats, 21.7 carats, 21.1 carats, 12.0 carats and 10.8 carats. Lucapa Chief Executive Stephen Wetherall said the results from the first four days at BLK_08 in the current mining campaign underlined the potential of this area to produce large and valuable diamonds on a consistent basis.

Lucapa and its partners have now recovered a total of 15 special diamonds to date in the September quarter, including a 32.7 carat gem recovered from mining area 31, at an average weight of 19.7 carats per stone.

Stephen Wetherall said, “We are now mining in what is obviously a very exciting diamond field. The BLK_08 area yielded our biggest diamond to date, which was a spectacular 131.4 carat D-colour Type IIa gem recovered during our initial bulk sampling programs. The fact that large special diamonds account for some 45 percent of the carats we have recovered from mining in this area to date underlines the exceptional nature of this alluvial diamond field and kimberlite province.” He added that the company envisages ‘ramping up production to our targeted rate of 20,000 bulk cubic metres per month.’

The next sale of Lulo diamonds is scheduled to take place in early September 2015 with 3,000 carats on offer.