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Lucara recovers new Karowe gem

472 carat gem is third biggest diamond from Karowe

Staff reporter

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The stone is the third biggest diamond ever to be recovered at the mine and the fourth over 100ct to be discovered so far this year.

It recovered 218 diamonds over 10.8ct during the March quarter, the third highest quarterly haul on record, with at least eight of these being exceptional stone tender-qualifying diamonds.

Lucara CEO Eira Thomas said the company was focused on mining at Karowe's high-value south lobe, which consistently delivered large, high-quality diamonds over 10.8cts in size. 

"The 472ct is the third largest diamond ever recovered from the mine and will be sold alongside other exceptional stones recovered since the beginning of the year as part of the first exceptional stone tender EST later in 2018," she said.

The company completed its first regular stone tender in March, saying it would report on it as part of the Match quarter results due May 8.

A pre-feasibility study is currently underway and on schedule for completion towards the end of the year. It is assessing the potential for going underground at Karowe and extending the mine-life from 2026 to 2036.

Lucara has also started commercialisation work on Clara, the secure, digital, rough diamond sales platform acquired in February, which combines proprietary analytics with existing cloud and blockchain technologies to modernise the current diamond supply chain.

The work is currently under the budget of US$2 million and is on schedule to implement the platform using diamonds from Karowe from the start of August.

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