De Beers upbeat on Botswana diamond pact after meeting new president
De Beers' CEO said he expected negotiations on a new diamond sales pact with Botswana's government to be wrapped up within weeks.
Lucapa Diamond (ASX: LOM) announced Tuesday that the company has recovered a 195-carat Type IIa diamond from its Lulo mine in Angola.
The diamond is the sixth largest and the 44th +100 carat diamond to be recovered from the Lulo mine, the company said, adding that the 195-carat Type IIa diamond is the fourth +100 diamond to be recovered at Lulo this year.
The mine, which hosts the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds, began commercial production in January 2015. Only a year later, it delivered the largest ever diamond recovered in Angola — a 404-carat white stone later named the “4th February Stone”.
Lucapa has a 40% stake in the Lulo mine. 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 sixth by volume. Its industry, which began a century ago under Portuguese colonial rule, is successfully being liberalized.
