Lucapa Diamond Company Limited announced the recovery of an “exceptional” 64 carat diamond from the Mothae kimberlite in Lesotho.

Lucapa Managing Director Stephen Wetherall remarked that the Type IIa D-colour diamond is considered “the best individual diamond recovered from Mothae to date”. This, he said, further underlines the mine’s status “as a source of large and premium-value stones”.

“The recovery of this exceptional 64-carat gem also represents a great start to our mining campaign in the higher margin zones in the southern pit at Mothae,” Wetherall added.

The Company noted that in line with recent guidance, “the commencement of dewatering of the southern pit into the main 500,000m3    water dam currently under construction at Mothae has enabled mining to transition to this higher-margin zone of the kimberlite pipe in Q3 2019”. Lucapa stated that mining is scheduled to continue in the southern pit through 2019.