Wednesday 29 January 2014

Lucapa Recovers 95-Ct. Diamond at Lulo

Lucapa Recovers 95-Ct. Diamond at Lulo

Jan 28, 2014 2:21 AM By Deena Taylor

RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company recovered a 95.45-carat, type IIa diamond from its Lulo diamond concession in Angola.

The diamond has an irregular equant shape and is the second- largest diamond recovered at Lulo. In 2012, the company recovered a 131.40-carat, type IIa diamond, of described as among the world's rarest category of diamonds.

Lucapa is still in the process of cleaning and retesting the diamond to resolve its color classification. The diamond is currently classified as D/E but has also has been described as brown.

"It is remarkable that we are continuing to find diamonds of this size and value in such relatively small bulk samples at Lulo,” said Miles Kennedy, Lucapa's managing director. Kennedy noted that the recent commissioning of Lucapa’s new DMS diamond plant enabled the company to scale up its diamond recovery operations.

The 95.45-carat diamond is the largest of 66 diamonds totaling 206 carats recovered from the BLK-19 bulk sample at Lulo. Other large stones included a 10.95-carat, a 7.65-carat, a 7.30-carat and a 5.65-carat diamond. Earlier this month, the company recovered a 32.30-carat type IIa diamond.

In addition to the new diamonds recovered from BLK 19, Lucapa recovered a further 35 diamonds weighing 19.45 carats from the BLK 18 commissioning sample bringing the company's diamond total to 259 diamonds weighing 374.40 carats.