Lucapa finds 171-carat diamond at Angola mine

Australia’s Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) has recovered a 171 carat gem-quality stone from its prolific Lulo mine in Angola, which was restarted in early May.

The miner said the white diamond is the 15th 100-plus carat it has recovered to date from Lulo and the second 100-plus carat precious rock found in 2020.

The diamond was recovered from mining block six, where five other 100-plus carat diamonds had been previously unearthed.

Mining blocks six and eight have now produced 13 of the 15 100-plus carat diamonds recovered at Lulo, Lucapa said. This includes Angola’s largest recorded gem, which is a 404 carat diamond sold in 2016 for $16 million.

The miner has a 40% stake in the Lulo mine, which hosts the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds. The rest is held by Angola’s national diamond company (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas, a private entity.

Angola is the world’s fifth diamond producer by value and no.6 by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully being liberalized.

Last year, the country held its first public diamond auction and since then, producers no longer have to sell at below-market prices to a handful of buyers favoured by the state.

Endiama recently revealed it was seeking international partners in an attempt to place Angola among the world’s top-three diamond producers.