Lucapa Diamond Company said that it had recently recovered another premium-value diamond, weighing 92 carat, from new Mining Block 28 at the Lulo diamond project in Angola, taking the total of all Special diamonds (>10.8 cts) recovered from the project past the 10,000 ct mark. Lucapa is one of the partners at the Lulo project along with Empresa Nacional de Diamantes (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas.

The 92 ct stone, which has been recorded as a D-colour Type I diamond on the Yehuda colorimeter was recovered from the same block that yielded the 227 ct gem sold last month, the Company said.

The Company also said that kimberlite exploration activity at the project site was now ready to commence with the commissioning of its New Hanjin D&B track-mounted drilling rig. The Rosanstroi drill crew have also recommenced drilling work at the site after a short break during which a new contract was finalised. After the monsoon season ends in late April, three rigs will be conducting drilling at the site.

The drilling operations are part of the kimberlite exploration programme, which aims to identify the kimberlite source or sources of the high-value alluvial diamonds being recovered through current mining at Lulo. The project achieved the highest average per carat price of any run of mine diamond production in the world in 2016.

Lucapa also said that the drilling rig will be guided by a helicopter-borne time domain electromagnetic (TDEM) survey over the Cacuilo River valley block at Lulo, which is almost 80% complete. The survey aims to identify other non-magnetic targets and improve definition of known kimberlite targets, as well as help the Company map the alluvial deposits along the Cacuilo River.

The first batch of coarse kimberlite drill core samples is to be dispatched for lab analysis soon, and more will follow over the next few months as drilling is stepped up, the Company said.