Lucapa commissions a stand-alone kimberlite bulk sample plant at Lulo

Lucapa Diamond and its Lulo joint venture partners in Angola, Endiama and Rosas & Petalas, have commissioned a stand-alone kimberlite bulk sample plant (KBSP).
The ASX-listed diamond miner said they have commenced processing the 15 kimberlites on the current priority bulk sampling list at Lulo.
Several kimberlite bulk samples have already been extracted during the KBSP construction phase and are on the feed pads awaiting treatment. 
“A tremendous amount of exploration work has been completed by the partners on the unique large stone and high-value Lulo concession over the years and these results point to the strong potential for a special primary source discovery on the Lulo concession,” said Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall. 
“With the commissioning of the kimberlite bulk sample plant completed, the project Lulo joint venture partners can now expedite kimberlite sampling to recover commercial size diamonds and to quickly assess the economic potential of a positive result.”
The kimberlite bulk samples will be processed at a rate of about two samples every six weeks. 
However, it is not expected that every kimberlite sample processed will return a positive diamond result. 
Lucapa said on a concession with such a high anomaly to kimberlite conversion rate, confirmed kimberlites will be added to the priority sampling list as concurrent discovery drilling and mineral chemistry analysis continues.

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