Lucapa Commissions New Mine in Lesotho

Lucapa Diamond Company (ASX:LOM) and the Government of Lesotho have announced the commissioning of the new treatment plant has commenced at the high-quality Mothae kimberlite diamond mine in Lesotho.

First commercial diamond recoveries are expected from the Mothae mine in early November 2018. Lucapa also operates the high-quality Lulo alluvial diamond mine in Angola.

As quoted from the press release:

Production from the 1.1Mtpa Mothae treatment plant, which incorporates two XRT diamond recovery circuits, will be ramped up to its nameplate capacity throughout the December quarter.

The commencement of production from the new 1.1Mtpa diamond treatment plant will see bulk sampling operations concluded at Mothae, with the staff now transitioning to the commercial diamond plant. More than 4,100 carats of diamonds have been recovered from the bulk sampling of areas within the Mothae kimberlite pipe which had not previously been tested (and thus not included in the Mothae JORC resource1), or had been inadequately tested during the previous trial mining phase2 . These included Specials (large diamonds >10.8 carats) of up to 89 carats.

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