Angola | Australia’s Lucapa Diamond extracts 266.7 carats of diamonds

Diamond mining in the Lulo alluvium, in the Angolan province of Lunda Norte, began in January with production of 266.7 carats, Australia’s Lucapa Diamond Company said in a statement recently.
Preliminary work in block 29 of the Lulo concession was “successfully” completed and in just eight days of operation 17.33 carats of diamond per 100 cubic meters of rock have been extracted, according to the same information.
In total, the company found 286 diamonds, weighing 266.7 carats, said Lucapa Diamond, whose Angolan partner for this project is state diamond company Endiama and private group Rosas & Pétalas.
Block 29 is the first alluvial diamond operation in the Lulo area since the Australian company and its partners last November signed a contract for the concession in in that area, valid for 35 years.
Previously, in the prospecting phase which lasted for six years, the company extracted 876.5 carats of diamonds from the Lulo area, notably a single 131.4 carat stone, the largest ever found by Lucapa.
The Lulo concession granting of Lulo lies 150 kilometers from the Catoca diamond mine, which is the biggest in Angola and the fourth largest of its kind in the world, and both are located in the same geological area. MDT/Macauhub