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Yesterday

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Edahn Golan: India’s lab-grown diamond exports surpass natural diamonds by volume, yet value gap widens

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Lucara's first quarter diamond sales slide

13 may 2025

Lucara Diamond’s tender sales for the three months ended March 31, 2025, totalled $9.3 million, compared to $13 million a year earlier. Clara's sales totalled $1.7 million, down from $3.2 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Overall, a lower volume of carats was sold through the Clara platform and tender compared to the first quarter of 2024, as both sales channels had a similar average dollar-per-carat sales value compared to 2024.

Lucara said the long-term outlook for natural diamond prices remains cautious as the market continues to navigate structural shifts.

While earlier price corrections, particularly in smaller sizes, were driven by subdued demand and increased supply, the market showed signs of improvement in March.

Smaller goods have stabilised in pricing, partially due to influences on supply.

Meanwhile, Lucara said it produced 93,716 carats in the first quarter of 2025.

It said 90,500 carats were from direct ore feed from the pit and stockpiles, at a recovered grade of 13.4 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht) and an additional 3,216 carats were recovered from processing of historical recovery tailings.

“The Karowe Diamond Mine continues to demonstrate its potential with the recovery of our seventh 1,000+ carat diamond,” said company chief executive William Lamb.

“While production in the quarter was impacted by higher-than-normal rainfall, we maintained a consistent recovery of Specials, reinforcing Lucara's expertise in this challenging operational environment.”

He said the underground project at Karowe is progressing, with advancements in shaft connecting lateral development during the quarter. Surface infrastructure construction progressed as planned.

“We anticipate reaching shaft bottom in the coming months, though we remain mindful of the complexity inherent in such major development projects,” said Lamb.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor-In-Chief, Rough & Polished