Lucapa removes L072 kimberlite as a priority target

Lucapa Diamond has removed L072 kimberlite at the Lulo diamond project in Angola as a priority target for being a potential source of the diamonds recovered in the Canguige tributary sample.
The diamond junior said the first two sub-samples of finer L072 kimberlite material totalling 2,511 bulked cubic metres were treated with no diamonds recovered.
“Whilst we and our partners would naturally hope for early positive results from our kimberlite bulk sampling program, negative results are to be expected from many of the of the samples, and eliminating kimberlites should ultimately lead us to identifying a potential source,” said Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall.
The kimberlite material from L071, which is much harder and therefore coarser than the material from L072, is being reduced to a treatable size range.
This, it said, is expected to be completed shortly and the sample is scheduled to be processed in last week of August 2020.
Lucapa has already scoped a mobile kimberlite crushing solution, but the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the timely procurement and implementation of this solution.
The kimberlite exploration programme is designed to discover the primary hard-rock source(s) of the large and exceptional alluvial diamonds being mined in the Cacuilo valley, which have achieved average run of mine sale prices of about $1,900 per carat.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished