GABORONE, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Canadian diamond explorer and mining company, Lucara Diamond Corp, announced on Monday that it has discovered an exceptionally large diamond from its Karowe Mine in Botswana.
Lucara said in a statement that in addition to the 239.2-carat diamond, two more large stones weighing 124.0 carats and 71.1 carats have also been recovered.
According to the company, the diamonds were recovered from the central kimberlite domain which has only recently become ore feed to the plant as the pit expands towards the south.
The company further said the diamonds will be sent to Antwerp to be studied prior to being sold later in the year.
"The recovery of these large stones is hugely significant to both Lucara and Botswana. To the best of my knowledge, the 239- carat stone is one of the largest diamonds ever to have been recovered from the highly prolific Orapa kimberlite field in over 40 years of production," said William Lamb, president and chief executive officer of Lucara.
"The recovery of a diamond of this size, the confirmed population of blue diamonds, and the strong operational performance in our first few quarters of operation demonstrate the quality of the assets as well as the competence of the operations team," he added.
Lucara positioned as a new diamond producer has two key assets - - Karowe Mine in Botswana and the Mothae Project in Lesotho.
Karowe mine is the only operating diamond mine outside the Debswana stable in Botswana. The junior diamond mine conducted its first production at Karowe mine in April last year.
Lucara recovered a 9.46-carat, type II blue diamond from Karowe Mine in November last year.
The Karowe Mine is located in north-central Botswana and is part of the Orapa/Letlhakane Kimberlite district, one of the world's most prolific diamond producing areas.
Botswana is the world's largest diamond producer by value, and currently more than 90 percent of diamond production is controlled by Debswana, a joint venture between the world diamond giant De Beers and the Botswana government.
|
