Lucapa meets full year group guidance following solid Q4. Guidance extended of Lulo & Mothae diamond mine. Diamond Production and Sales highlights said,
1: Full year rough revenue (100% project) US$102.2 million (A$154.3 million),
2: Q4 rough diamond revenue (100% project) US$40.8 million (A$63.1 million).
3: FY Mothae records in tonnes processed and mined, carats recovered and price per carat,
4: Mothae recovered 8,314 carats and sold 10,947 carats for US$541/carat in Q4.
5: Lulo recovered 7,640 carats and sold 5,653 carats for US$6,170/carat in Q4.
6: 11 Lulo diamonds fetched US$32.7 million at two tenders in Q4,
7: Two Type IIa diamonds weighing 208 and 235 carats recovered from Lulo in Q4 & 8: Q4 average price for both operations – US$2,458 per carat.
Lulo ended the year well above guidance for both volume processed and rough price per carat at 625,548m3 and US$2,700 respectively. Lulo set new annual records for volumes processed and mined. Carats recovered was within 3 percent of the forecast.
At Mothae Mine, Lesotho; set new annual records for tonnes mined and processed, carats recovered, and average price per carat achieved. All Q4 performance targets were achieved at Mothae. The mine processed 399,500 tonnes in the period which produced 8,314 carats. These metrics were 49% and 47% higher than the previous corresponding period.
However, the quality of the diamonds was lower than expected, leading to an average price per carat of US$541 in Q4, meaning Mothae missed price per carat guidance for the full year. The diamond price achieved was impacted by the mining of lower-value areas and the absence of high-quality Type IIa diamond recoveries.
Lucapa’s technical team and Mothae’s management are investigating the cause of the low-value recoveries. There were three run-of-mine sales during Q4 with 10,947 carats sold into the Safdico partnership agreement. At Quarter end, Mothae had inventory of 1,872 carats with the first sale scheduled for January 2024.
Mothae met full year guidance in all categories except price per carat mainly due to the absence of quality Type
IIa diamond recoveries during Q4.
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