Australia to propose tax incentives for critical minerals
The proposed law will set up a tax incentive worth 10% of relevant processing and refining costs for 31 critical minerals.
Australia’s Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) said Monday it had achieved gross proceeds of $1.7 million (A$2.1 million) from selling 2,072 carats recovered at its prolific Lulo mine in Angola.
The sale, the second this year, included a 1.9-carats vivid pink diamond and a 44-carats rock, the largest in the parcel.
The figure obtained represents an average price per carat of $804, the company said, adding that the transaction has taken proceeds from Lulo diamonds sales so far this year to $10.8 million (A$13.5 million) at an average price per carat of $1,731.
Figure obtained represents an average price per carat of $804.
It’s been a good start of the year for Lucapa so far, with the company finding some important diamonds including a 43-carat yellow stone, the largest coloured gem-quality rock ever recovered at Lulo.
The project, located 150km from Alrosa’s Catoca mine, the world’s fourth largest diamond mine, hosts type-2a diamonds which account for less than 1% of global supply.
Lucapa has a 35-year license for Lulo, which early last year bore a 404.2-carat white diamond, considered the largest diamond ever recovered in Angola and the biggest diamond ever found by an Australian company.
It also holds a 70% interest in the Lesotho-based Mothae project, located within 5 km of Gem Diamonds’ (LON:GEMD) Letšeng mine, which last month yielded a 910-carat rock, the fifth biggest gem-quality diamond ever found.
Angola is the world’s No.4 diamond producer by value and No.6 by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully emerging from a long period of difficulty as a result of a civil war that ended in 2002.
