Lucapa to Start New Kimberlite Diamond Program at Lulo

(IDEX Online News) – Lucapa Diamond Company is to undertake a 24-month program is to further evaluate the known diamondiferous pipes at the Lulo diamond concession and to explore for other possible kimberlite sources of the diamonds mined within the concession.

“Many diamond exploration companies spend decades trying to discover alluvial diamonds or kimberlite pipes,” said chief executive Stephen Wetherall. “At Lulo, we have achieved both. We have already discovered an alluvial diamond field and two significant kimberlite provinces with exceptional potential. We have every confidence that our new program will lead us to an economic kimberlite diamond discovery, which is our ultimate focus. We are also fortunate that most of our kimberlite targets at Lulo either outcrop, or are close to the surface, which makes evaluation and exploration a lot more cost effective.”

Weherall said the company was confident that it would find the primary kimberlite sources due to several factors including the existence of two large kimberlite provinces at Lulo with 296 targets already identified, the fact that the Lulo diamonds (specifically the large diamonds) are irregular shaped and have jagged edges, indicating they have not travelled far from the source and the surface texture studies of all Lulo diamonds show very little sign of abrasion, which also points to a close source.

The company said the focus of the new program will be to prove up existing and new larger diamondiferous kimberlite pipes.

The new kimberlite program has been designed from a review of all geological and exploration data from the 296 kimberlite targets discovered to date at Lulo, 96 of which have already been classified as proven or probable kimberlites from exploration programs carried out in recent years.

The program will be undertaken in two stages. The first stage will begin in April and continue throughout the June quarter, at a cost of $500,000. This will include excavating more extensive bulk samples to further evaluate and prove up the four diamond-bearing pipes already identified at Lulo and sending existing drill core for micro probing analysis.

The second stage of the new kimberlite program is scheduled to commence in the September 2015 quarter and will include the progressive drilling and sampling of 48 priority targets in the main western kimberlite province at Lulo.