Rare Blue Stone Latest Find for Lucara Diamond

It has been a monumental year for gem miner Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC,OTC Pink:LUCRF) — the Africa-focused diamond company has recovered another special find, this time a blue 9.74 carat “exceptional” gem-quality diamond.

The latest discovery was made during direct milling of the south lobe of the Karowe mine in Botswana. A pink 4.13 carat gem-quality diamond was also unearthed in the same area.

Both the blue and pink gems are considered rare finds, with blue being the rarer of the two.

“Lucara is extremely pleased with the recovery of these rare, sizeable, fancy colored diamonds, which have the potential to contribute meaningful value to our regular production of large, high value type IIa diamonds,” Lucara CEO Eira Thomas said. “We look forward to offering these diamonds in our fourth quarter tender to be held in December 2019.”

This isn’t the only azure-hued stone recovered at Karowe. In 2012, the Aven Blue, a 9.46 carat blue gem, sold for US$477,000 per carat. Recently, another blue diamond weighing 2.24 carats sold for US$347,222 per carat. These sale prices indicate the potential value that the recently discovered stone may have.

Just last week, the same targeted zone produced a 123 carat gem-quality top white type II diamond.

Karowe has been a cornucopia of diamond production this year — in February, a 223 carat white diamond was found, and just two short months later, Karowe produced its largest gem to date, a 1,758 carat rough diamond.

“Karowe has now produced two diamonds greater than 1,000 carats in just four years, affirming the coarse nature of the resource and the likelihood of recovering additional large, high quality diamonds in the future,” Thomas said at the time.

“(P)articularly as we mine deeper in the ore body and gain access to the geologically favorable EM/PK(S) unit, the source of both of our record breaking, above 1,000 carat diamonds.”

The recovery of the massive stone was enabled by Lucara’s exclusive XRT circuit, which was commissioned in 2015. The XRT has produced more than 1.4 million carats and counting.

Not only is Lucara integrating new technology that allows for higher recovery grades, but the Canada-headquartered gem producer also introduced its own digital sales platform earlier this year.

The platform, called Clara, incorporates blockchain technology to streamline the sales process.

The Investing News Network (INN) spoke with Thomas in February 2019 about the new platform and the Karowe project.

“The ultimate aim is selling diamonds in real time as they are being produced at a mine site,” she told INN. “Ultimately, we have diamonds produced at the mine site, they’re scanned, they’re uploaded for sale (and) we then have manufacturers or buyers that are uploading their polished orders. We find the match (and) deliver them the stone.”

Shares of Lucara were up slightly on Thursday (September 26), trading at C$1.12.

Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.