Lucara strikes again with diamond over 1,000 carats

Lucara strikes again with diamond over 1,000 carats
The 1,174.76 carat diamond found at Karowe. (Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.)

Canada’s Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC) has recovered a 1,174 carat diamond from its company’s prolific Karowe mine in Botswana, the third over 1,000 carats dug up since 2015.

The diamond, measuring 77x55x33mm, was found at the South Lobe of the AK6 kimberlite, the same area of the mine that has yielded the impressive 1,758 carat Sewelô and 1,109 carat Lesedi La Rona.

The fresh find is described as a clivage gem of variable quality with significant domains of high-quality white gem material.

During an 11-day production run in June of EM/PK(S) unit of the South Lobe, which sourced the newest stone, several other high-quality white gems were also recovered. Those include five diamonds weighing 148-carats, 90-carats, 88-carats, 86-carats, and 67-carats respectively.

President Eira Thomas said that finding another “historic” diamond was a world record for Karowe.

Lucara strikes again with diamond over 1,000 carats
High quality gems, shown prior to cleaning, recovered in June 2021 at Karowe. (Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.)

“Although complex, these diamond recoveries do contain large domains of top colour white gem that will be transformed through our partnership with HB Antwerp into valuable collections of top colour polished diamonds, very much in high demand in the market today,” Thomas said in the statement

Year to date, Karowe has produced 17 diamonds greater than 100-carats, including five over 300-carats, Thomas noted.

The government of Botswana, Africa’s largest producer of diamonds, announced last week that its joint venture with De Beers had found a 1,098-carat stone, the biggest Debswana has ever recovered since it began operations five decades ago.

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