Lucapa – Page 3 – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Bristow to finally put Rockwell Diamonds saga to bed after firm unveils wind-up plan

MARK Bristow, CEO of Barrick Gold Corporation, is to finally close the book on Rockwell Diamonds, a company he chaired and which he once attempted to save from bankruptcy.

Rockwell Diamonds announced today the Canadian listing authority had revoked a cease trade order which had been issued as the company had previously failed to produce quarterly numbers with the accompanying management discussion.

The company today filed third quarter numbers and announced its intention to wind up its affairs in which a company owned by Bristow, ‘Bristco’ would mop up the interests of minority shareholders in Rockwell and put them into ‘Amalco’.

Dissenting shareholders would have their interests exchanged on a one-for-one basis for redeemable preference shares of Amalco.

The redeemable preference shares would then be immediately redeemed by Amalco in exchange for half a Canadian cent per share, payable in cash. A meeting of shareholders requiring a simple majority has been arranged for March 2.

Bristow first sought to bail out Rockwell Diamonds, which was once run by his brother, John Bristow, in 2014, in which Mark Bristow bought $1.1m in debentures. In 2016, Bristow embarked on a process of ‘fumigation’ in which he restructured the firm’s board and conducted an overview of its operating activities.

Unfortunately, the company never managed to gain traction at its key asset, the 200,000 cubic metres a month Wouterspan, situated in the alluvial diamond fields region of the Northern Cape province.

There was a proposed $8m recapitalisation of the company in 2017.

The company was subsequently put into liquidation proceedings following attempts by a business practitioner to save it from failure. The company was in and out of court throughout this period with claims of corruption involving contractors.

In 2019, Bristow completed the merger of his Randgold Resources with Barrick Gold, a fabulously successful transaction which as coincided with high gold prices.

Source: miningmx.com

Lucapa’s run of recovering +100 carat diamonds continues

Lucapa Diamond Company and its partners have announced the recovery of the 18^th +100 carat white diamond by Sociedade Mineria Do Lulo (SML) from its Lulo alluvial mine in Angola.

The recovery of this second +100 carat diamond from Mining Block 46 (MB46), a 104 carat D colour white stone, so soon after the 113 carat D colour white stone, indicates the potential for these blocks as the company moves deeper into the southern terraces.

Source: miningreview.com

Diamond Trading Goes Online as Lucara Takes on Industry Goliaths

The opaque diamond trade may be ripe for disruption.

Lucara Diamond, which recently found the second-largest diamond in history in Botswana, is taking on industry giants such as De Beers and Alrosa PJSC with an online platform to replace the current physical auctions.

The service allows Lucara to match buyers’ requirements, not only saving jewelers the trouble of traveling to Botswana but also ending the practice of buying stones by the bucket. They typically can only use some, and then have to sell the rest on the secondary market.

“For the first time ever, manufacturers buy only what they want, they don’t have to carry all this extra inventory,” Eira Thomas, Lucara’s chief executive officer, said in an interview in Stockholm. “The large integrated jewelry companies don’t want to be in the business of secondary trading. They’re just trying to source diamonds for their own products.”

In a series of trials, Vancouver, Canada-based Lucara claims that prices were 8 percent over Lucara’s traditional market price. It’s now trying to bring other independent producers on board, with the aim of moving at least a portion of the $18 billion annual diamond trade onto its site called Clara.

Whether Lucara will be able to attract major producers to use its system remains to be seen. De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer, is famous for its tight control over the diamond market and has relied on its own system of selling gems for decades.

“If we can get to $1.5 billion transacted through the platform, the cash flow we generate from Clara will be as important as the cash flow we generate from the mine,” Thomas said. “We’re taking baby steps right now, but each quarter we’ll report, we expect the volume to increase.”

Clara incorporates blockchain technology, which is seen as a promising avenue for an industry that has been plagued by ethical problems, including the trade in so-called “blood diamonds” used to finance armed conflicts. Lucara is far from the only miner who has seen the benefits of the digital ledger in guaranteeing the provenance of its product.

De Beers has launched Tracr, a platform aiming to increase the traceability of diamonds using blockchain. That pilot program was joined by Russia’s Alrosa, another giant in the business, in October last year.

Lucara’s Clara uses similar technology, but its main purpose is to match buyers and sellers. While it’s difficult to judge Clara in an early stage, Ola Sodermark, an equity analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, sees potential in the initiative. The key is to get more producers to join the platform, he said.

“Lucara’s own volumes aren’t sufficient to make this fly,” he said. “The question is whether they’re too early with this technology, or if the market is ready for it.”

Lucara was founded by Thomas in 2007, together with Catherine McLeod Seltzer and current chairman Lukas H. Lundin, whose family oversees a commodities empire that includes stakes in oil, gold and solar power across the globe. The Lundin family holds an 18 percent stake in the company through the investment company Nemesia Sarl.

Source: bloomberg

Lucapa Angola Tender Rakes In $17M USD

Lucapa Diamond Company sold $16.7 million worth of rough stones from its Lulo mine at the first diamond tender under Angola’s new sales rules.

“The exceptional sale prices achieved for the Lulo diamonds reflected the highly competitive bidding from leading international diamantaires and large-stone manufacturers from eight countries that participated in the tender,” the company said Friday.

The miner sold seven special-size stones through an electronic tender in Luanda organized by state-owned diamond-marketing company Sodiam. Six white stones weighing 114.94, 85.24, 75.62, 70.08, 62.05 and 43.25 carats, and a 46.77-carat pink, fetched a combined average price of $33,530 per carat at the sale, which took place January 30 to 31. Lucapa has been withholding the stones from sale throughout the year to sell them under the reformed rules, which were designed to improve transparency and pricing.

Under the previous regulations, miners were required to sell their diamonds to a list of buyers Sodiam selected, limiting competition for the stones and causing pricing to fall below market levels. The new system allows companies to offer 60% of their production to clients of their choice.

Lucapa has now sold $141 million worth of rough Lulo diamonds since it began commercial operations in 2015, at an average price of $2,105 per carat.

The company’s share price rose 8% Friday following the announcement.

Source: Diamonds.net

Lucapa Finds 3 More Special Diamonds at Mothae Mine

89 carat yellow stone from Mothae’s South East zone

Just a week after unearthing an 11.88 carat diamond, Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered more “special” diamonds from its Mothae mine, including a 28-carat stone and two light pink diamonds.

Special diamonds, a term the company uses to describe any diamond over 10.8 carats, have been abundant at Mothae in recent weeks.

The company is currently conducting ongoing bulk sampling, and recent results have included an 89 carat yellow stone from Mothae’s South East zone, a 25 carat yellow gem from the Neck zone and a 12-carat white diamond from the North zone.

The bulk sampling at the site is happening alongside construction of a new 150-tonne-per-hour commercial diamond plant, which is on schedule to be commissioned in H2 2018.

Lucapa Managing Director Stephen Wetherall has previously discussed the company’s bulk-sampling program, describing the prior lack of exploration at the site.

“Certain areas of the kimberlite pipe which hadn’t historically been sampled (Neck zone), or where there had been very limited historical testing (South-East and North zones), were thought to be underestimated as a result. At the time of acquisition, we believed there was much upside here and this program is designed to deliver that upside,” Wetherall said.

Wetherall also touched on the commercial diamond plant’s construction, and how the successful recovery results have given the company optimism for the road ahead.

“To have already recovered special sized diamonds from early sampling tonnages in all three of these areas gives us great confidence we can achieve this goal. It also adds to our excitement as we advance construction of our new 150 tph plant, which remains on track for commercial diamond production later this year,” he said.

The Mothae mine, located in Lesotho, South Africa, is a joint venture between Lucapa, which owns 70 percent, and the government of the Kingdom of Lesotho, which owns 30 percent.