Lucapa clocks revenues worth $2.3 million from sale of diamonds from Lulo

Lucapa Diamond Company Ltd. achieved revenues worth $2.3 million from the sale of its fourth parcel of diamonds from the Lulo Diamond Concession in Angola. The average price realized was US$1,500 per carat for the 1,539 carat parcel, reflecting more than 12 times the average global diamond sale price of US$120/carat.

The fourth sale parcel included the 63.05 carat Type IIa D-colour diamond recovered in April 2015 from mining area 31 at Lulo and several other special (+10.8 carats) stones. Lucapa Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wetherall said the fourth sale was proof of the strong and regular cash flows being generated from alluvial mining at Lulo, which commenced in January 2015. “The sale prices we are achieving highlight the financial significance of recovering large special diamonds on a regular basis – as we are doing at Lulo – and gives us further confidence that we are on track to achieve our previously stated objective of becoming cash flow positive by the end of this Quarter. We hope to be in a position to offer our next parcel of Lulo diamonds for sale in June 2015, in line with our strategy of generating sustainable long-term cash flows from regular diamond sales.”

This sale coincides with the commencement of alluvial mining at the high-grade BLK_08 area at Lulo. This area produced a 131.4 carat Type IIa gem – the largest and most valuable diamond recovered during the exploration bulk sampling phase at Lulo.

With the conclusion of this sale, Lucapa has sold generated $7.7 million in gross proceeds from the sale of four parcels of Lulo diamonds, with a total of 3,856 carats. As at the end of April 2015, Lucapa and its partners had recovered 30 special diamonds during exploration bulk sampling and mining at Lulo with an average stone size of 27.8 carats. Apart from these large special diamonds, the Lulo diamond field also produced fancy coloured diamonds (pinks and yellows) and a significant proportion of Type IIa stones.