Lucara's underground expansion programme at its Karowe Mine in Botswana has been re-scoped and reduced from the previous budget of $53 million for the year and will focus on long lead time critical-path items through the remainder of 2020.
The diamond miner said this was due to uncertainty around estimating revenue for 2020 although the recently announced supply agreement with HB is expected to provide regular monthly cash flow for the remainder of the year
“As a result, during H1 2020, $5.6 million was spent on project execution activities including detailed engineering and design work and early procurement initiatives,” it said.
Planned capital spending programme for 2020 was to be largely focused on the initiation of an underground expansion project at Karowe and funded entirely from free cash flow generated by operations.
The underground expansion programme had an estimated capital cost of $514 million and a five-year period of development, with flexibility to adjust capital spending depending on market conditions.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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