Lucapa boosts Lesotho diamond project’s economics

A new development plan for the Mothae kimberlite diamond mine, in Lesotho, has significantly improvedproject economics, ASX-listed Lucapa Diamonds reported on Monday. Lucapa’s initial plans for the Mothae project would have seen the company process some two-million tonnes of mainly weathered, near-surface kimberlite material at a rate of 720 000 t/y, over the first three years of operation, under Phase 1, which was expected to cost $12-million to develop.