December 12, 2011 (LUC – TSX, LUC – BSE, LUC – NASDAQ OMX First North) … Lucara
Diamond Corp. (“Lucara” or the “Company”) is very pleased to report outstanding
results from its second tender of rough diamonds recovered from the Mothae mine
in Lesotho. A total of 7,190 carats in 28 sale lots were offered on tender in
Antwerp between December 5 through 9, 2011. All 28 lots received multiple bids
and winning offers resulted in an average price of US$893 per carat and gross
proceeds of US$6.4 million, an increase from Lucara’s first diamond sale
earlier in the year.
The three stones with the highest per carat value, all Type IIa, were a 28.89
carat diamond which sold for $1.6 million ($57,113/ct, a record for Mothae), a
56.51 carat diamond which sold for $2.1 million ($37,019/ct), and a 19.20 carat
diamond which sold for $490,000 ($25,520/ct). These prices signify the
exceptional quality and size of the stones that are regularly recovered from
Mothae.
Mr. William Lamb, President and CEO of Lucara Diamond Corp., commented, “The
results of this sale re-confirm the presence of a population of large, top
quality diamonds within the Mothae kimberlite and demonstrate that these stones
can be recovered with a regularity which greatly enhances the economic
potential of the project. We are particularly pleased with the enthusiastic
market response to Mothae production, suggesting that we can always expect
strong demand for our type of diamonds regardless of market conditions.”
The tender was held at the offices of Bonus-Couzyn under the supervision of AGM
Diamond Expertise (HK) LTD. The diamonds sold were recovered during the
ongoing trial mining at Mothae. Sample grades for the material processed to
recover the diamonds were as follows:
┌─────────┬─────────┬────────────┬─────────┬───────────┬──────────────────────┐
│Sample ID│Dry │No. of │Carats │Carats/ │Dry Sample Grade │
│ │Tonnes │Stones │ │Stone │(cpht)1 │
├─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────┤
│G2A │33,691 │4,256 │1,909.78 │0.45 │5.67 │
├─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────┤
│G2B │22,689 │3,022 │1,286.89 │0.43 │5.67 │
├─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────┤
│G3A │29,874 │3,722 │1,654.70 │0.44 │5.54 │
├─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────┤
│F2A │50,181 │4,083 │1,979.76 │0.48 │3.95 │
├─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────┤
│C7A │18,425 │875 │403.20 │0.46 │2.19 │
├─────────┼─────────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────┤
│Total │154,860 │15,958 │7,234.33*│0.45 │4.67 │
└─────────┴─────────┴────────────┴─────────┴───────────┴──────────────────────┘
1 2.0 mm bottom cut off size (or diamonds greater than 2.0mm)
The trial mining program at Mothae has been going very well and is expected to
be completed in the third quarter of 2012. A total of 720,000 tonnes of
kimberlte is scheduled to be processed of which 430,000 tonnes has been
processed to date.
A Preliminary Economic Assessment study was contracted to ADP in October 2011
and is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2012. The objective
of the study is to gain a further understanding of the economic potential of
the Mothae project and to define the capital expenditure and operating costs
for mine development to a pre-feasibility level.
A core drilling program of approximately 6,100 metres commenced in November
2011 and is anticipated to be completed in the second quarter of 2012. The
objective of the drill program is to define the internal geology of the Mothae
kimberlite and extend the currently defined kimberlite volume from a depth of
200 metres to 320 metres.
In the addition, the Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms.
Jennifer Lecour as Corporate Secretary of Lucara effective December 1, 2011.
Jennifer is a lawyer with more than 15 years experience in both the corporate
and not-for-profit sector. Jennifer holds both a law degree and degree in
psychology from Queen’s University. She is also a graduate of the Queen’s
Executive Leadership Program and a member of the Institute of Corporate
Directors.
About Lucara
Lucara is a well positioned emerging new diamond producer. The Company has an
experienced board and management team with years of diamond development
expertise. The Company’s two key assets are the Karowe diamond mine in Botswana
and the Mothae diamond mine in Lesotho. The 100% owned Karowe Mine is in the
construction stage with mine commissioning scheduled to commence in the first
quarter of 2012. The 75% owned Mothae mine is currently in the trial mining
stage. Both Mothae and Karowe are large scale assets with tonnage and
throughput upside; diamond values from both could significantly increase with
the continued recovery of Type IIA and large stones.
Mr. Anthony George, P. Eng., a mining engineer and Lucara's V.P. Development,
is the Company's Qualified Person pursuant to NI 43-101 and has reviewed and
approved the contents of this news release.
* Difference between sold carat weight and recovered carat weight is attributed
to losses in the acidization process.
On Behalf of the Board,
William Lamb
President and CEO
Forward Looking Statements: This document contains statements about expected or
anticipated future events and financial results of Lucara that are
forward-looking in nature and are based on Lucara's current expectations,
estimates and projections. This forward-looking information is subject to
certain risks and uncertainties, such as legal and political risk, civil
unrest, general economic, market and business conditions, the regulatory
process and actions, technical issues, new legislation, competitive and general
economic factors and conditions, the uncertainties resulting from potential
delays or changes in plans, the occurrence of unexpected events and
management's capacity to execute and implement its future plans. The actual
results, activities, performance or achievements of Lucara may differ
materially from those projected by management. A discussion of factors that may
affect Lucara's actual results, performance, achievements or financial position
is contained in the filings by Lucara with the Canadian provincial securities
regulatory authorities on the system for electronic document analysis and
retrieval ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com.
E. Öhman J:or Fondkommission AB (Pareto Ohman), part of the Pareto Securities
group, is Lucara’s Certified Adviser on NASDAQ OMX First North.
For further information, please contact:
Sophia Shane, Corporate Development +1 (604) 689-7842
Robert Eriksson, Investor Relations, Sweden +46 701-112615
