Lucara Diamond, an emerging new diamond producer, has announced that initial production diamonds have been obtained. The commissioning of the Karowe Mine process plant ore is advancing as per the plans.
First Karowe diamond production
The grade and quantity of diamonds obtained during the preliminary ore operations has been excellent and further strengthens the expectations on this new mine.
From the top benches of the deposit’s North Lobe, the company had recovered more than 5,300 carats of diamonds. The deposit has a projected grade of higher than 32 carats per hundred tonnes. This value is twice the typical deposit grade. The company has recovered a number of huge diamonds that include four unique stones of over 10.8 carats; 14.56, 16.55 and 25.88 carats are the three largest stones recovered so far.
Lucara Diamond’s President and CEO, William Lamb stated that the operations and construction team is excited over ore commissioning and recovery of the initial production diamonds, including large and high-quality diamonds. These recovered diamonds demonstrate strong crystal shapes, which are likely to be launched into the market by June 2012. Ore processing and diamond production across the entire plant demonstrate that the company is an emerging new diamond producer.
The company has planned ore commissioning operations, which comprise run-time analysis on the autogenous mill. The commissioning work will continue throughout April and production will be scaled up to full capacity through the second quarter of 2012. Lucara Diamond plans to market the Karowe Mine diamonds in early June 2012.