ASX-listed Lucapa Diamond Company, Endiama, Angola’s national diamond company, and private local partner Rosas & Pétalas have announced the recovery of a spectacular 404,2-carat diamond from the Lulo diamond project in Angola’s Lunda Norte province.
Testing on a Yehuda diamond colorimeter has confirmed the diamond to be a Type IIa D-colour gem. It is the biggest recorded diamond ever found in Angola – one of the world’s top four diamond producing nations – and the 27th biggest recorded diamond in the world. It also ranks as the fourth 100+ carat diamond recovered from Lulo to date and the biggest diamond discovered by an Australian company.
The 404-carat diamond recovered from one of the alluvial mining blocks at Lulo (photo: Lucapa).
The diamond was recovered from alluvial Mining Block 8 at Lulo, which has already produced more than 60 large special diamonds since mining began in this area in August 2015. The previous largest diamond recovered at Lulo weighed 133,4 carats.
Lucapa is the operator of the Lulo project and has a 40 % interest in the alluvial diamond mining operations. Endiama has a 32 % interest while Rosas & Pétalas holds 28 %. Alluvial mining operations commenced at Lulo in 2015 following the awarding of a mining licence in November 2014.
Lulo is located within 150 km of Alrosa-operated Catoca, which is the world’s fourth biggest diamond mine and accounts for about 75 % of Angola’s annual diamond production.
The previous record for Angola’s largest diamond belonged to a diamond known as the ‘Angolan Star’ – a 217,4-carat gem recovered from the Luarica mine in 2007.
