Lucapa Diamond Company has unearthed yet another massive stone from its lucrative diamond project in Angola, with the latest gem expected to fetch upwards of $10 million.
The West Australian company yesterday announced it had found a 172.7-carat diamond at its Lulo project, the second-largest stone found by the group and the sixth 100-carat-plus gem discovered to date.
Lucapa chairman Miles Kennedy told The Australian that while it was difficult to estimate a likely value for the “exceptional” diamond, it could fetch more than $US8 million.
“It’s definitely a very, very special stone and it will be worth a lot of money,” Mr Kennedy said.
The latest find comes less than a week after Lucapa found a 104-carat stone, and less than three weeks after it unearthed a 38.6-carat pink stone that was the largest coloured diamond to come out of Lulo.
The company appears to be in the middle of a particularly productive run at Lulo, with the recent success the best since the company recovered its huge 404-carat gem back in February. That stone later sold for $22.5m.
Both that stone and the recent big gems have all been unearthed at Lucapa’s Block 8 alluvial area, which was flooded during the middle of the year in the Angolan monsoon. Operations resumed in recent months after the area dried out.
In July and August, Lucapa recovered 98 diamonds of 10 carats in size or more.
“We had a record month in July and a record month in August. September’s not over but I expect we will have another record month in this area,” Mr Kennedy said.
The revenue from the alluvial stones is helping fund Lucapa’s hunt for the source of the diamonds.
Shares in Lucapa jumped 2.5c or 6.5 per cent to 41c.
Lucapa is partnered at Lulo with Angola’s Endiama and private group Rosas & Petalas.
LOM Price at posting:
41.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
