Lucapa Signs 35-Year Mining License Agreement in Angola

(IDEX Online News) – Lucapa Diamond Company Limited has signed agreements for a 35-year license to mine the Lulo Diamond Concession in Angola’s Lunda Norte diamond province.

The company said the license is the culmination of six years of continuous investment in exploration and bulk sampling programs for kimberlite and alluvial diamonds at Lulo and represents its most critical milestone in its goal of building a “premium diamond mining house.”

The license, which was signed by Lucapa and its mining partners Endiama (the Angolan government’s diamond concessionary) and Rosas & Petalas (a private company controlled by Angolan lawyer Dr. Celso Rosas) covers a 218-square kilometer area within the 3,000-square kilometer concession.

Lucapa said it has also negotiated a new shareholders’ agreement with Endiama and Rosas & Petalas as well as by-laws for a newly-incorporated diamond mining company of which it will retain a 40 percent shareholding, as well as continuing as the sole operator of the Lulo diamond mine.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lucapa has received a favorable tax and royalty regime, including a 25 percent corporate tax rate and a 5 percent royalty rate.

Lucapa Commercial and Development executive director Stephen Wetherall said the signing of the agreements represented a significant transforming event for Lucapa.

“We have been recovering some of the best diamonds in the world from both our alluvial and kimberlite bulk exploration activities at Lulo and we look forward with tremendous excitement to recovering more of them when mining commences on a commercial scale,” he said.

The diamonds found at Lulo include large exceptional stones of up to 131.4 carats, rare Type IIa diamonds, fancy pinks and fancy yellows.

Lulo is located within 150 kilometers of Catoca, Angola’s biggest diamond mine and the fourth-biggest producing kimberlite pipe in the world. Lulo and Catoca are located on the same geological belt, the Lucapa Graben.

“We are well advanced in our goal to find the next large kimberlite diamond mine in Angola. We have identified ~300 kimberlite targets in two distinct clusters or provinces within the concession area and have already confirmed that four kimberlite pipes are diamond-bearing. We remain confident that the kimberlite source, or sources, of the exceptional alluvial diamonds we have been recovering awaits discovery within the Lulo Diamond Concession,” added Wetherall.