Lucara Recovered 48.54 ct Diamond During Mothae Trial Mining

48.54 ct diamond unearthed by Lucara at Mothae

(IDEX Online News) -  Lucara Diamond Corp recovered a 48.54 carat high quality diamond from the initial processing of sample C9A. Lucara is reporting excellent results from the trial mining program currently being carried out at the Mothae diamond mine in Lesotho.

The company produced 1,439.85 carats of diamonds larger than 2 millimeter from 49,152 dry tonnes of kimberlite for a sample grade of 2.93 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht).

Lucara is conducting a trial mining program to mine and process up to 720,000 tonnes of kimberlite from the Mothae pipe to gather further data on diamond grade, size distribution and diamond value information following a previously completed successful 100,000 tonne bulk sample program.

Another sample, C8A, included one diamond greater than 20 carats, 12 stones between 10 and 20 carats, 23 stones between 5 and 10 carats and 62 stones between 2 and 5 carats in weight.  The largest three stones recovered from the sample are 31.87 carats, 17.88 carats and 16.54 carats.  

As of the completion of sample C8A, the trial mining program at Mothae has produced 3,634.11 carats of diamonds from 136,231 dry tonnes of kimberlite for an overall sample grade of 2.67 cpht.