Modern Mining April 2019

MINING News

Run of big stone recoveries at Mothae continues

believes the capacity of the plant can be significantly increased earlier with relatively minor modifications, which are currently being scoped in detail and will be announced in due course. 

Lucapa Diamond Company, listed on the ASX, has recovered a top-colour 55-carat diamond from the new 1,1 Mt/a Mothae kimberlite plant in Lesotho. The 55-carat stone is the fifth +50‑carat

excess of its nameplate capacity. The Mothae plant layout was originally designed with the intention of doubling throughput to 2,2 Mt/a in Phase 2 in 2021. However, Lucapa’s management

diamond recovered to date from the new mine, where commercial production com- menced in Januar y 2019 following the successful com- missioning and ramp-up phases for the new plant and an earlier bulk sampling campaign. This latest find follows the announcement by Lucapa in mid-March that it had recov- ered an 83,9-carat diamond (though not of gem quality) from Mothae. According to Lucapa, the new Mothae plant, which incorporates two XRT diamond recovery circuits, has already demonstrated its ability to operate at throughput rates in

The newMothae diamond processing plant (photo: Lucapa).