Modern Mining May 2019

MINING News

Karowe delivers another record-breaking diamond

Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corp has announced the recovery of a 1 758-carat diamond from its 100 %-owned Karowe diamondmine located in the Orapa Kimberlite Field in Botswana. One of the largest diamonds in recorded history, the largest diamond recovered in Botswana, and the largest diamond to be mined at Karowe to date, the unbroken stone was recovered through Lucara’s state-of-the-art XRT circuit, commissioned in April 2015, which utilises TOMRA sensor technology. Weighing close to 352 grams and measuring 83 mm x 62 mm x 46 mm, the diamond has been characterised as near gem of variable quality, including domains of high-quality white gem. Since the XRT circuit was commisioned, 12 dia- monds in excess of 300 carats have been recovered at Karowe, including two greater than 1 000 carats, from a total production of approximately 1,4 million carats. Of the twelve +300 carat diamonds recovered, 50 % were categorised as gem quality with 11 sold to date gener- ating revenue in excess of US$158 million. Eira Thomas, Lucara’s CEO, commented: “Lucara’s technologically advanced, XRT diamond recovery cir- cuit has once again delivered historic results. Karowe has now produced two diamonds greater than 1 000 carats in just four years, affirming the coarse nature of

the resource and the likelihood of recovering additional, large, high quality diamonds in the future, particularly as we mine deeper in the orebody and gain access to the geologically favour- able EM/PK(S) unit, the source of both of our record breaking, +1 000 carat diamonds.” 

TOMRA XRT machines at Karowe (photo: Lucara).

May 2019  MODERN MINING  11