Lucapa Diamond Company and its respective project partners have reported that both the Luo and Mothae high value diamond mines achieved record monthly diamond production results for August 2019.

This achievement comes on the back of the Company’s growth-focused strategy, leading to the scaling up of production at both mines to maximise revenue generation and returns.

At the Lulo alluvial mine in Angola, where Lucapa is the operator and has a 40% share, diamond production during the month of August reached 3,180 carats, the highest monthly result since production commenced in 2015.

Lucapa said that a significant factor in this was the monthly grade of 13 carats per 100 cubic metres (cphm3), which is almost twice the planned grade of 6.7 cphm3. Activity during this period was focused on two of the flood plain blocks being delineated at Lulo, including new Mining Block 19 situated between the prolific Mining Blocks 8 and 6. While these areas have no noticeable prior artisanal activity, the results give confidence that the potential of the hitherto unexplored areas is great and can lead to increased production and mine life, the Company said.

Similarly, at the Mothae mine in Lesotho where Lucapa has a 70% stake, records were achieved both for monthly processing of 120,736 tonnes treated, and for diamonds recovered at 2,911 carats. Commercial production at the site commenced in January 2019. Year to date carat production now stands at 17,935 carats.