Lucapa posts 48 pc increase in carats at Angolan diamond project

Lucapa Diamond Company (ASX:LOM) has increased the resource of its Angolan diamond concession Lulo by 48 percent to 228,000 carats, this being the sixth consecutive year of carat increase for the project.

The diluted volume of gravel (ore) that can be mined at the concession also rose 90 percent to 5.02Mm3, and according to Lucapa, this could account for eight years of production from Lulo, based on planned mining and processing capacities.

Since its previous update, Lucapa has rolled out extensive work to define the resource, including auger drilling and trial mining in the southern mining blocks, in addition to gaining additional production data from the active mining blocks.

This work contributed to the new valuation of the Lulo Alluvial Resource, which was conducted independently by Z Star Mineral Resource Consultants in Cape Town.

Also taken into consideration was the depletion in mining by SML mining operations: with 30,585 carats of diamonds being recovered from 625,548 bulk cubic metres of gravel during this time; and the sales of diamonds during 2023, totalling US$77.3 million at an average diamond price of US$2,700/ carat.

However, the price of diamonds was noted to have weakened throughout 2023, with the modelled value of diamonds from Lulo is US$1,897 per carat, a fall of about 5 percent from US$2,000 per carat.

LOM last traded at 11cps.