Lucapa Diamond says it has completed the Mothae expansion project, in Lesotho, which is designed to increase nameplate capacity by 45% from about 1.1 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 1.6 Mtpa.
It said the processing plant was handed back to the production team after completion of the installation of the new scrubber bypass conveyor, the new primary jaw crusher and other associated upgrades.
The upgraded processing plant is being re-commissioned and ramped up to its new increased capacity.
Lucapa said that Mothae will complete this ramp up by the end of this month and will then operate at the newly expanded capacity from the beginning of the second quarter of 2021.
"The completion of the Mothae expansion project on-time and within budget, despite the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic earlier in January, is a credit to the Mothae management, staff and contractor teams," said Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall.
"[We] look forward to the increased recoveries and economy of scale benefits this expansion was designed to provide."
The project was completed on-time, within budget and with no safety incidents recorded.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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