Lucapa completes construction of Lulo kimberlite bulk sample crushing circuit

Lucapa Diamond and its Lulo joint venture (JV) partners have completed the construction of a crushing circuit of the standalone kimberlite bulk sampling plant on the Lulo concession in Angola.
The full standalone plant is scheduled for completion and commissioning this quarter, after which, the Lulo JV partners will be expediting and processing the kimberlite bulk samples at a significantly higher rate of approximately four kimberlite bulk samples per quarter.
Lucapa said the main objective of the kimberlite bulk sampling programme is to identify the primary source pipe(s) of the exceptionally large and high-value diamonds being recovered in the alluvial mining operations and to assist in a preliminary economic assessment of the potential source discoveries.
“With the injection of additional funding into the exploration program post the pandemic impact on progress, the advanced Lulo kimberlite exploration program will now deliver kimberlite bulk sampling results on a very regular basis,” said company managing director Stephen Wetherall.
“The partners look forward to furthering our work on the priority kimberlites and to identifying potentially economic sources.”
Lucapa and its partners have already identified six diamondiferous kimberlite pipes, some with high proportions of rare Type IIa diamonds.

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