In the report for Lucara announces Q1 2024 referred the progress on underground expansion review of The Karowe Mine. The report said, Ore and waste mined of 0.8 million tonnes and 0.2 million tonnes, respectively.
A total of 89,145 carats recovered, including 7,534 carats from the processing of historic recovery tailings, (Q1 2023: 89,640 carats) at a recovered grade of 11.7 carats per hundred tonnes (“cpht”) of direct milled ore (Q1 2023: 12.8 cpht).
A total of 160 Specials (defined as stones larger than 10.8 carats) were recovered, with three diamonds greater than 100 carats including one diamond greater than 300 carats. Recovered Specials equated to 5.1% of the total recovered carats from direct milling ore processed during Q1 2024 (Q1 2023: 4%).
The twelve-month Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate of 0.30 (Q1 2023: 0.36) at the end of Q1 2024 reflects a continued focus on leading indicators and safe performance.
Financial highlights for the three months ended March 31, 2024 included, revenues of $41.1 million (Q1 2023: $42.8 million) were achieved despite a weaker rough diamond market. First quarter pricing stabilized in smaller goods and increases of 4% were observed compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Revenue reflects the weighting of Lucara’s revenue towards larger goods where pricing is heavily impacted by the individual goods delivered in a period. A 33% increase in the average price of larger goods sold was observed from the fourth quarter of 2023 and 18% from the first quarter of 2023.
The price of goods in this size category are significantly impacted by the natural variability in quality of the recovered goods in any individual period. Revenue against plan was impacted by the quantity of larger goods delivered in Q1 2024.
