Recently Lucapa released their 2023 report! Lucapa is a diamond mining company listed on the ASX with activities spanning exploration, production, rough sales and the downstream value-adding activities of cutting & polishing. The board and management team have deep experience across all facets of the diamond industry.
Lucapa has stakes in two operating diamond mines, one near-term development project and several exploration ventures. Lucapa’s flagship project is its 40% stake in the Lulo alluvial mine in Angola (SML). It also has a 70% stake in the Mothae kimberlite mine in the Kingdom of Lesotho. In 2021, Lucapa completed the 100% acquisition of a third project, Merlin, a near-development project in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Development options for Merlin are currently being considered. The Lulo alluvial mine in the Lunde Norte region of Angola is globally renowned for recovering high-quality, large diamonds including regular recoveries of +100 carat diamonds. In 2023, it recovered five gem quality +100 carat diamonds, while in 2022 it recovered a total of ten.
The production from SML fetches the highest average price per carat for any alluvial production globally. In 2023, SML produced 30,585 carats. Mothae mine, in the Mokhotlong province in the Kingdom of Lesotho attracts the second highest average price per carat in the world for kimberlite production.
In 2023, the mine produced a mix of quality Type IIa and Type I diamonds from the open-pit operation, totalling 32,884 carats. In 2023, the Merlin Feasibility Study was pivoted from a large-scale development, to examine a smaller-scale, lower capital cost option, commencing with the high-grade Gawain pipe.
The main exploration project for Lucapa is the advanced Lulo Kimberlite Joint-venture exploration programme in Angola, tasked with locating the primary source of the large, high-value alluvial diamonds recovered by SML.
An updated JORC classified mineral resource for Lulo was published by Lucapa in March 2024, estimating an inferred resource of 228,400 carats at a modelled value of US$1,897/carat as at 31 December 2023. This is a 48 percent increase in resource carats and a 5 percent drop in the price per carat as a reflection of the softening of diamond prices over 2023.
The volume of gravel in the resource update has been increased by 90% to 5.02 million cubic metres, equivalent to 8 years production at planned mining and processing capacities. This is the 6th consecutive year the Lulo alluvial resource carats have increased.
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