Lucapa Diamond Company is set to restart mining operations at the Mothae kimberlite diamond mine in Lesotho. The Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho made the announcement over the course of last week.
The mine was put on care and maintenance during the coronavirus lockdown. Isolation measures forced the suspension of operations at the mine in late March this year to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Mining and treatment operations have now restarted at Mothae in compliance with advised health measures to ensure the safety of its employees and contractors. Lucapa will scale the operations to about 75% of capacity due to the pandemic related protocols in place.
Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall said: “Mothae is an important contributor to the Basotho nation and Lucapa and the Government of Lesotho are excited to have most of our teams and contractors back at the mine.
“We too look forward to implementing recently approved marketing initiatives that will see additional value derived for the Mothae high-value production.”
Lucapa completed construction and commissioning of a new 1.1 Mtpa Mothae diamond plant in 2018, enabling commercial production to commence in January 2019. Results to date have confirmed that like Lulo, Mothae is also a source of large and premium-value diamonds, including rare Type IIa whites and coloured gems Large diamond recoveries to date have included a 126 carat gem-quality diamond and six other +50 carat stones.
Mothae diamonds are sold via tender in Antwerp. Sales revenues to date in 2019 total US$13.5 million. Individual Mothae diamonds have sold for up to US$36,000 per carat. While kimberlite material was sourced predominantly from lower-margin zones of the 8.8 hectare kimberlite pipe in H1 2019, mining has since transitioned to the higher-margin southern pit following dewatering into the main water dam.
