Lucapa soars on record sales from Angola mine

Shares in Australian Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) jumped Monday after the company announced a record result from the latest sale of diamonds from the Lulo diamond project in Angola.

The Africa-focused miner said it has fetched $8.3 million after selling 1,864 carats of rough diamonds, which worked out to be $4,452 per carat.

The figures are the highest ever achieved for a sale of gems from the Angola mine, except from the 404.2-carat diamond sold for $16 million in February, it said.

The company’s stock closed 3.4% higher at 0.455, which bring the annual gains to almost 61%.

The Lulo diamond 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 holds a 35-year license for the project that has so far bored massive gems, including the 404.2-carat white rock found early this year, which is considered the largest diamond ever recovered in Angola and the biggest ever found by an Australian company.

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.

Earlier this year, the government reduced taxes and cut state ownership requirements to rekindle the industry after the global financial crisis forced mines to close.

The world’s biggest pink diamond found to date was unearthed at Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine, weighing 13 carats.