Lucara Diamond Corp. said in a recent announcement that it would conduct the inaugural sale of diamonds through its 100% owned digital sales platform Clara Diamond Solutions in November 2018. The sale will include a selection of diamonds from Lucara's Karowe mine and additional aggregated third-party rough diamonds consisting of stones between one and fifteen carats in size in the better colours and qualities, it added.

Buyers who have onboarded the digital platform include a select group of large vertically integrated jewellery houses and global diamond manufacturers, the Company stated.

Clara Diamond Solutions uses proprietary analytics, with the latest cloud and blockchain technologies, to sell rough diamonds individually, based on polished characteristics and demand, transforming the sales process, driving efficiencies and unlocking value for diamond producers and manufacturers alike.

Under an exclusive collaboration agreement with Sarine Technologies, a digital fingerprint of each rough diamond is created and uploaded to the Clara platform with a corresponding asking price. Simultaneously, diamond buyers upload their specific polished diamond requirements in terms of size, cut, colour and quality, including their desired purchase price, creating an 'order' within Clara. 

The platform matches individual, scanned rough diamonds to the buyers' optimal polished requirements. Clara earns the differential between the asking price and purchase price of each match as its revenue and requires a minimum transaction spread to facilitate an optimal match.

According to Lucara, the new platform moves away from diamond sales by assortments and facilitates "stone by stone" sales achieving best possible pricing for producers. For manufacturers, the platform enables them to purchase only the diamonds they want, eliminating the need to re-trade and finance unwanted inventories, achieving higher margins. Moreover, sales are ‘continuous’ rather than ‘fixed cycle’, it added.

Utilising blockchain technology, the platform tracks every rough diamond with a secure and immutable record of its origins and ownership.

Eira Thomas, CEO commented: "After several months of intense commercialization efforts which are tracking on schedule and under budget, we are excited to be moving forward with our first sale. Clara is a scalable business solution for the entire diamond industry that is long overdue and necessary to modernize, streamline and increase consumer confidence in the marketplace. The platform has received strong interest from the diamond community and we are delighted to have secured excellent partners, consisting of leading diamond manufacturers and jewellery houses."

Following the incorporation of feedback from this initial sale, Clara intends to move into continuous sales using qualifying goods from the Karowe diamond mine and will be inviting other producers and manufacturers to participate on the Platform in the coming months.