Angola’s Lucapa Diamond Company and Partners Revamps Progression on the Kimberlite Research at Lulo Diamond Operation

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

Photo Credit: Jewelry Magazine

NEW AFRICA BUSINESS NEWS (NABN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- Lucapa Diamond Company and allies have capitalized progressive results on the kimberlite research project at the Lulo diamond undertaking in Angola. This is a notch to recognize the hard-rock sources of the extraordinary alluvial diamonds being excavated along the Cacuilo River at Lulo.

At present, the stage of the Lulo Kimberlite research policy initiated in 2019 after a comprehensive technological survey of all prior findings accentuated sixteen Kimberlites and eight other marks as being the most forthcoming to host diamonds.

Precisely, the Canguige catchment tract within the Lulo diamond arena, came to be the emphasis of the Kimberlite analysis strategy, pursuing the recovery of forty-five diamonds of up to 3.75 carats from a stream specimen held from the Canguige River – a feeder to the Cacuilo River.

Precisely, five of the precedence kimberlites and two targets featured in the 2019 specialized study, are discovered within the Canguige catchment. The National State of Emergency announced in Luanda; in a bid to stave off the spread of COVID-19 effected some holdups to the Lulo Kimberlite exploration program. And that influenced the breadth of job.

Despite these criteria, tracing drilling of the preeminence Kimberlites within the Canguige catchment has begun again as well as the building and rehabilitation of entrance roads and bridges, heeding a roster wet season to boost bulk specimens to be exhume and toted to the Lulo Diamond Plant to test for diamonds.

Kimberlite L071 lingers on the priority of the illustration drilling policy, with a total of twenty-three core holes tested to date to define near-surface kimberlite material suitable for bulk survey.

Reasonably, two external zones of high interest volcaniclastic kimberlite material have been identified as high-interested logging of drill core from L071. Yet, the excavation and processing of a bulk sample from L071 is slated to start on June 2020, gesturing the onset of a sta stunning phase in the Lulo kimberlite research program.

Afterward, drawing drilling will continue the other priority targets in the Canguige catchment in rehearsal for further bulk samples, which will be progressively unearthed for processing through the Lulo diamond plant. Successive stage of the program will involve sampling the prevailing eleven focus kimberlites and six targets elsewhere in the Lulo diamond field which were featured in the specialized survey.

Stephen Wetherall – Managing Director of Lucapa asserts that, the forthcoming bulk census crusade exemplified an exhilarating new phase in the Lulo kimberlite exploration program.

“The kimberlite bulk sampling campaign which is set to commence at L071 next month is built on the results of many years of exploration work undertaken by Lucapa and its partners to unlock Lulo’s true potential – in order to find the hard-rock sources of the rare and valuable alluvial diamonds we are recovering along the Cacuilo River,” says Wetherall.

“We and our partners look forward to advancing our kimberlite bulk sampling and delineation drilling workstreams throughout the Angolan dry season and updating shareholders with results as they come to hand.”

“These exploration programs will continue in parallel with our alluvial mining operations at Lulo, where recent recoveries have included a 171 carat gem-quality white diamond – the 15th +100 carat stone we have recovered to date along the Cacuilo River.”