Zimbabwe central banker stockpiles gold to bolster ZiG currency
The ZiG - short for Zimbabwe gold — is the nation’s sixth attempt at having a functioning local currency in the last 15 years.
Lucapa Diamond (ASX: LOM) together with partners Endiama and Rosas & Petalas announced Monday that four diamonds recovered from the Lulo alluvial mine in Angola attracted A$26 million ($17m) at tender.
The tender was conducted by Sodiam EP, Angola’s national diamond trading company, in Luanda. The Lulo parcel of 609 carats consisted of 4 Type IIa diamonds weighing 41 carats, 123 carats, 208 carats and 235 carats, respectively.
In addition to Lulo, Lucapa has a 70% interest in the Mothae mine in Lesotho. The large, high-value diamonds produced from these two niche African diamond mines attract some of the highest prices per carat globally, the Australian miner said.
The Lulo mine has been in commercial production since 2015, while the Mothae mine began commercial production in 2019.
The outcome of this tender is very encouraging as it once again clearly indicates the strength of the market for these exceptional, rare and high value stones of which Lulo is a consistent producer,” Lucapa CEO and managing director Nick Selby said in a news release.
“This is a positive result for Lucapa in a year when the diamond industry generally suffered weakness in pricing,” Selby said.
“With India about to resume rough diamond imports and Russian diamonds potentially having a restricted flow into the market in 2024, we are optimistic that we will see improvement and stability in diamond prices across all sectors of the market in the new year.”
