Lucapa Diamond unearths 172 carat diamond at Luanda

Weighing 35 gramme and a Type IIa D-colour stone, the exceptional stone is the fifth diamond over 100 carats recovered from Lucapa's mining operations in 2016.

 Lucapa DiamondBarely two weeks since junior Australian miner Lucapa Diamond Company (AS: LOM) recovered a 38.6-carat pink diamond at its Lulo Diamond Project in Angola, the company found a second diamond. The 172.67-carat diamond was unearthed from its alluvial operations at Lulo.

Weighing 35 gramme and a Type IIa D-colour stone, the exceptional stone is the fifth diamond over 100 carats recovered from Lucapa's mining operations in 2016, and the sixth total, says Steve Wetherall, chief executive. The diamond was found in Luanda, Angola, reports News.com.au.

Following the spate of diamond discoveries, shareprice of Lucapa jumped 28 percent to 41 cents from 32 cents in September. It includes a 6.5 percent appreciation on Monday, reports Motley Fool.

The four other diamonds which Lucapa recovered in 2016 are two diamonds of 88 and 6.3 carats on April 26, a 404-carat diamond on Feb 4, 120 and 86.2 carats on Feb 3 and 133, 29, 11, 95.5 53.2, 32.2 24.5, 13.7 ad 10.9 carats on Jan 22.

The 404-carat diamond found on Feb 4 was sold for A$22.5 million (US$16 million).  If the other diamonds are sold, it would boost Lucapa’s maiden half-year net profit of US$3.25 million (A$4.25 million) for the first six months of 2016.

Lucapa has a 40 percent stake in the alluvial diamond mining operations. The other 32 percent is held by Endiama, which is the Angolan government, and the remaining 28 percent is owned by Rosas $ Petalas.

Although it is a lucky year for Lucapa, the miner is still considered a speculative miner. To maintain profitability, it must keep on recovering large diamonds or ramp up its operations significantly.

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