Lucara Diamond to replace CEO Eira Thomas

Lucara Diamond (TSX: LUC) announced Monday the company will appoint William Lamb as president and chief executive officer and a director, replacing Eira Thomas.

Thomas co-founded Lucara in 2007, with partners Lukas Lundin and Catherine McLeod-Seltzer and took on the role of president and CEO in 2018.

The company did not specify a date for the intended leadership transition.

Thomas has been integral to the development and success of the company’s 100% owned Karowe diamond mine in Botswana, which is the world’s leading source of large exceptional quality Type IIa diamonds, Lucara said in the statement.

The board said it would like to acknowledge the special contributions that Thomas made over her many years of involvement with Lucara in her capacity as a director, and specifically over the last five years as CEO.

As CEO, she introduced an innovative diamond sales strategy for Lucara’s production of rough stones greater than 10.8+ carats through Lucara’s agreement with HB Antwerp, generating regular revenues on superior pricing terms.

Thomas also led the commercialization of Clara, a secure, digital diamond sales platform. The Karowe mine achieved peak operational performance and she and her team arranged for a senior secured project financing debt package of $220 million enabling the underground expansion to advance.

William Lamb has over 25 years’ experience in mining project development and operations. He served as CEO of Lucara Diamond from May 2011 to February 2018.

He also has prior diamond and other mining company expertise gained through projects, process engineering and operations with De Beers, as well as serving on several public mining company boards. During his original tenure at Lucara, Lamb was responsible for the successful construction of the original Karowe mine and its facilities.

“On behalf of Lucara’s Board of Directors, I would like to thank Eira for her leadership and the integral role she has played in the success of the Karowe Diamond Mine,” Paul Conibear, Chair of Lucara’s board of directors said in the statement.

“Eira’s commitment, excellent team leadership skills, focus on operational excellence and her ability to see how innovation and technology can be harnessed to strengthen our company have been invaluable,” Conibear said. “Lucara has also benefited from the deep ties Eira has made with the communities in which we operate and our stakeholders through her hard work and foresight.”

“We are very grateful for Eira’s tremendous contribution to Lucara since its founding,” Adam Lundin said. “She has laid the groundwork for further value add at the Karowe diamond mine, for the benefit of all Lucara’s stakeholders. We look forward to working with Eira on exploring options to maximize the value of Clara for all stakeholders. We are very pleased to have William rejoin us and successfully lead the company once again.”

In a note on Tuesday, BMO Capital Markets diamonds analyst Raj Ray said that despite his strong experience at Karowe, Lamb will have “his work cut out for him in terms of rebuilding confidence in a muted diamond market environment.”

Ray noted that the leadership change comes after Lucara recently announced an update in July on underground development at Karowe and after capital costs on the underground expansion grew to US$683 million from US$547 million, mostly attributable to grouting issues during shaft sinking, which have delayed the project schedule to 2028 from 2026.   

“The underground development will present a new challenge alongside rebuilding confidence amongst investors and lenders,” Ray said about Lamb’s upcoming tenure. “Restructuring the lending facilities will likely be one of the first areas to address.” 

Lucara shares were up more than 4% in Toronto on Tuesday to 38¢, valuing the company at $172.7 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week window of 35¢ and 72¢.