Lucara Auctioning Mothae Rough

(IDEX Online News) –Mothae Diamonds (Pty) Ltd is auctioning about 8,500 carats of its rough, holding its first diamond sale March 21-28, in Antwerp. Mothae is offering diamonds produced from bulk sampling and trial mining at the Mothae kimberlite in Lesotho.

The sale will be conducted by sealed tender in terms of an agency agreement between Mothae and A.G.M. Diamond Expertise and will be held at the offices of Bonas-Couzyn N.V. in Antwerp.

William Lamb, president and CEO of Lucara that holds a 75 percent stake in Mothae Diamonds, said the auction is an important milestone for the Mothae project. “It will provide us with the first true price discovery for Mothae production and will greatly enhance our ability to understand the economic drivers for Mothae,” he said.

Mothae is conducting a trial mining program of up to 720,000 tonnes on the Mothae kimberlite.

Lucara’s partner in Mothae is the Government of Lesotho. The government is entitled to a 4 percent royalty based on the final sales proceeds.

Lucara also owns the AK6 diamond mine in Botswana, currently in the construction stage with mine commissioning scheduled to commence in the fourth quarter of 2011. The company said that diamond values from both assets could significantly increase with the continued recovery of Type IIA and large diamonds.