Lucapa Diamond Company Limited, which has drill programmes underway or planned on  kimberlite and lamproite targets a  three different sites -- Lulo (Angola), Brooking (Western Australia) and Orapa Area F (Botswana) of  the Company’s various projects, recently provided an update and expressed satisfaction on the advancement of the work.

 At the Lulo Diamond Project, Angola drilling has been completed on 19 kimberlite targets; and the Company expects that drilling of the majority of the priority targets will be completed in 2017. Currently, three drilling rigs are focused on the cluster of kimberlite targets in drainage systems feeding into the prolific Mining Block 8 alluvial area, the Company said, and will include a deep hole in the large L259 target. The aim of the drilling at Lulo is to identify hard rock sources of the exceptional Lulo alluvial diamonds, which, the Company says “achieved the highest average per carat prices in the world in 2016”.

The first batch of material has been sent for analysis and laboratory results are expected in October. A second batch will be sent for laboratory analysis in the next quarter. 

In Western Australia at the Company’s Brooking Diamond Project, a heritage survey has been completed and a “programme of work” has been submitted for a 19-hole drilling programme at Brooking in the Ellendale lamproite field. 

“Drilling will test eight key lamproite targets up to 50 hectares in size located within 40km of the Ellendale mine, formerly the world’s leading producer of rare fancy yellows,” Lucapa stated.

Meanwhile, in the Orapa Area F Diamond Project in Botswana  the Company is in the final stages of getting approvals for a five-hole deep drilling programme. This site is located within 40 km of Botswana’s prolific Orapa diamond mine.