Lucara Diamond posts AK6 resource in Botswana

As part of an ongoing feasibility study, Lucara Diamond (LUC-V) has updated its resource estimate on the AK6 kimberlite it acquired from Boteti Exploration in December 2009.

AK6, a pipe consisting of South, Centre and North lobes, has an indicated resource of over 51 million tonnes at an average grade of 22 carats per hundred tonnes and an average modeled diamond value of US$194 per carat.

In the inferred category, the pipe, which has an area of 4.2 hectares at the surface and expands to 7 hectares at a depth of 120 metres, contains about 20 million tonnes grading 19 carats per hundred tonnes and an average modeled diamond value of US$183 per carat.

The AK6 kimberlite is part of the Orapa/Letlhakane kimberlite district, one of the world’s most prolific diamond-producing districts.

Lucara, the project operator, is upgrading a conceptual mining study for the Boteti project to a full feasibility study, and this work is expected to be completed in May.

Lucara owns a 70.3% stake in the Boteti project as a joint venture with African Diamonds (AFD-L) at 28.3% and Wati Ventures at 1.4%.

African Diamonds has an option to acquire an additional 10.3% interest from Lucara for about US$7 million and an option to acquire Wati’s interest.

The resource estimate was based on an evaluation of the AK6 kimberlite by Boteti Exploration between 2003 and 2007. This work was carried out by De Beers Prospecting Botswana.

Tonnage estimates were based on 22,744 metres of delineation core drilling in 69 holes, including 23 holes or 7,161 metres drilled as pilot holes in advance of large diameter drilling conducted for diamond grade sampling. Microdiamond analysis was carried out on core from the pilot-hole program.

Large diameter (23″) flood reverse circulation drilling was done on a 50-metre-by-50-metre grid across the AK6 pipe to evaluate macro-diamond grade. Twenty-six large diameter holes were completed with two holes reaching depths of 700 and 702 metres respectively.

Drill cuttings from 25 of the 26 holes were processed for macro-diamonds, representing a total of 7,264 metres and which sampled a total of 6,046 tonnes of kimberlite.

Large diameter drill samples were processed through a diamond recovery plant using a 1-mm bottom cutoff size, and a total of 1,172.4 carats of diamonds were recovered. An additional 582.2 carats of diamonds were recovered from surface trench samples.

At presstime, Lucara was trading at $1.07 per share. The Vancouverbased junior has a 52-week trading range of 40¢-$1.20 and 98.5 million shares outstanding.