In a statement, recently, Stephen Wetherall, Managing Director- Lucapa Diamond Company Limited announced the company a debt free! Lucapa is now interest-bearing debt free, repaying ~A$30 million in debt and interest over an 18 month period.
Lucapa Diamond announce it has expunged all interest-bearing loans from Equigold and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC).
This month, Lucapa made the final instalment of US$1.3 million (A$1.9 million) in principal and interest on the original US$15 million Equigold debt, raised in 2018. In addition, Mothae Diamonds (Pty) Ltd recently made its final interest payment of ZAR7.3 million (A$0.6 million) to the IDC. The IDC loan has now been fully repaid.
The group will now seek to have all securities with respect to those loans released.
Lucapa, the diamond miner and explorer with assets in Africa and Australia has interests in two producing diamond mines in Angola (Lulo, in which LOM holds 40%) and Lesotho (Mothae, in which LOM holds 70%). The large, high-value diamonds produced from these two niche African diamond mines attract some of the highest prices/ carat globally.
The Lulo mine has been in commercial production since 2015, while the Mothae mine commenced commercial production in 2019. In 2021, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Australian Natural Diamonds Pty Ltd, Lucapa completed the strategic and transformative acquisition of the Merlin Diamond Project, an historic Australian mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. A feasibility study is expected to be completed in Q2 2023.
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