Vancouver-headquartered Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC) has discovered “one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed” at its Karowe Mine in Botswana.
The fist-sized stone measures 2,492 carats and was found using Lucara’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray Transmission technology, which the company installed in 2017 to identify and preserve large, high-value diamonds.
It was recovered via the processing of EM/PK(S) kimberlite, the dominant ore type that Lucara plans to continue to target during the initial years of the underground mining operations.
A diamond is assessed by carat, clarity, cut and colour which determine its price, therefore 1 carat can range anywhere from US$2,000 ($2,971) to US$14,000 ($20,794) per carat. The average price for 1 carat in July 2024 was US$3,561.
Based on that average price, the diamond would be worth just shy of US$9 million.
Botswana is the second largest diamond producing country in the world, behind Russia, digging up nearly 25 million carats of diamonds each year.
The main producing mines in the region are De Beers’ Jwanend and Orapa Mines.
Lucara has previously found several other large diamonds including the 1,758 carat Sewelô and 1,109 carat Lesedi La Rona stones.
The company, which has a market capitalisation of C$151.6 million ($165.7 million), sold 76,387 carats in the second quarter of 2024, generating revenue of US$41.3 million.
Lucara says the long-term outlook for natural diamond prices remains positive due to improving supply and demand dynamics due to long-term reductions from major producing mines.
However, the market for the smaller size stones remains soft as demand is impacted by a weak Asian market and laboratory-grown diamonds.
Lucara had US$21.9 million cash on hand at the end of the June quarter.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Lucara Diamond
