Lucapa Diamond’s wholly owned subsidiary Australian Natural Diamonds (AusND) has completed the acquisition of the Merlin diamond project in the Northern Territory of Australia.
It said AusND settled the A$7.4 million purchase price owing to the liquidators of Merlin Diamonds to complete the acquisition transaction.
The financial security payment of A$1.1 million in respect of an environmental bond was already made to the Northern Territory government.
“The successful development of Merlin will be transformative for Lucapa as the delivery of the company’s third producing mine will expand our production base and revenues considerably elevating Lucapa into a mid-tier diamond producer. We look forward to releasing the Scoping Study shortly,” said Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall.
AusND acquired the 24km2 mineral lease and 283km2 exploration licence encompassing the mineral lease.
The purchase also includes all existing equipment, infrastructure and assets on the mineral lease and exploration licence.
The mineral lease contains 11 previously discovered kimberlite pipes in three kimberlite clusters with an existing 4.4 million carat JORC 2012 compliant mineral resource.
There are two known diamondiferous kimberlites on the exploration licence.
Lucapa is in the process of finalising a scoping study to demonstrate the economics of the planned development and strong potential for the Merlin mine to be a long-life diamond producer.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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