Lucara Diamond has announced the recovery of a 1,758 carat diamond from its 100% owned Karowe Diamond Mine located in Botswana.
Image: The 1,758 carat diamond recovered from the Karowe mine. Photo courtesy of CNW Group/Lucara Diamond Corp.
One of the largest diamonds in recorded history, the largest diamond recovered in Botswana, and the largest diamond to be mined at Karowe to date, the unbroken 1,758 carat stone was recovered through Lucara’s state of the art XRT circuit, commissioned in April 2015. Weighing close to 352 grams and measuring 83mm x 62mm x 46mm, the diamond has been characterized as near gem of variable quality, including domains of high-quality white gem. Further detailed analysis is ongoing.
Since commissioning of the XRT circuit in 2015, a total of 12 diamonds in excess of 300 carats have been recovered at Karowe, including 2 greater than 1,000 carats, from a total production of approximately 1.4 million carats. Of the 12 +300 carat diamonds recovered, 50% were categorized as gem quality with 11 sold to date generating revenue in excess of US$158 million.
Eira Thomas, Lucara’s CEO commented: “Lucara’s technologically advanced, XRT diamond recovery circuit has once again delivered historic results. Karowe has now produced two diamonds greater than 1,000 carats in just four years, affirming the coarse nature of the resource and the likelihood of recovering additional, large, high quality diamonds in the future, particularly as we mine deeper in the orebody and gain access to the geologically favourable EM/PK(S) unit, the source of both of our record breaking, +1,000 carat diamonds.”
Source: Company Press Release