{"id":1152498,"date":"2019-11-29T05:54:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T11:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1008018"},"modified":"2019-11-29T05:54:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T11:54:50","slug":"lucara-bets-on-diamond-market-recovery-plans-mine-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1152498","title":{"rendered":"Lucara bets on diamond market recovery, plans mine expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s&nbsp;Lucara&nbsp;Diamond (TSX:LUC)&nbsp;doesn\u2019t seem deterred by weak conditions affecting the market as it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lucaradiamond.com\/newsroom\/news-releases\/lucara-provides-operating-outlook-for-2020-122785\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">plans to boost sales returns<\/a> by targeting higher grade areas of its Karowe mine in Botswana.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Delivering production guidance for 2020, the Vancouver-based miner\u00a0says it expects to recover between 370,000 and 410,000 carats at Karowe next year and have an annual revenue of between $180 and $210 million.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAnticipated cash flow from operations in 2020 should allow us to pursue early works which are critical to [Karowe&#8217;s] underground development schedule.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite>President and chief executive officer, Eira Thomas.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Lucara forecasts the income will come from selling &#8220;special&#8221; diamonds \u2014 10.8 carats and larger, excluding truly unique finds such as the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lucara-gets-almost-18m-fragment-massive-ledesi-la-roma-diamond\/\" >1,109-carat&nbsp;Lesedi la Rona<\/a>&nbsp;and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lucaras-massive-constellation-diamond-sells-for-record-63-million\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">813-carat Constellation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBuilding on the strong operating performance achieved in 2019, Lucara will continue to focus in 2020 on optimising the base business, growing our digital sales platform Clara Diamond Solutions by adding third-party production to the platform,\u201d president and chief executive officer, Eira Thomas,&nbsp;said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lucaradiamond.com\/newsroom\/news-releases\/lucara-provides-operating-outlook-for-2020-122785\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Lucara has set aside $53 million for early work related to<br \/>\nthe planned underground extension for Karowe, with a final investment decision to<br \/>\nbe made in the second half of next year. <\/p>\n<p>Pre-production costs for the project, which would increase the operation\u2019s productive life for 20 years until 2040, have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lucara-going-ahead-with-514m-expansion-of-karowe-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">pegged at $514 million<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The extension will allow Lucara to exploit the highest value<br \/>\npart of the orebody first, generating over $5.25 billion in gross revenue. <\/p>\n<p>The company expects to get its investment back in under<br \/>\nthree years. In the meantime, it has moved to preserving cash by suspending<br \/>\ndividends for future quarters.<\/p>\n<p>Karowe is one of the world\u2019s most prolific sources of large,<br \/>\nhigh value type IIA diamonds. Since beginning commercial operations in 2012, it<br \/>\nhas produced 2.5 million carats, becoming the only mine in recorded history to<br \/>\nhave produced two 1,000+ carat diamonds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company has earmarked $53 million for early work on a planned underground mine at Karowe. A final investment decision will be made in the second half of 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,369],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intelligence","category-miningcom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1152498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152552,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152498\/revisions\/1152552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1152498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1152498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1152498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}