Museums join queue for Lucara’s latest giant diamond

LESEDI La Rona, the 1,109 carat diamond recovered from Karowe’s south lobe open pit by operator Lucara Diamond Corp. in 2015, astonished the world.At the time it was the world’s second-largest gem-quality diamond, surpassed only by the 3,106ct Cullinan diamond discovered more than a century ago, now set in the UK crown jewels.Since then, Karowe has yielded larger stone, culminating in the 2,488ct ‘Motswedi’ stone unveiled in August. Described by Lucara Diamond CEO William Lamb in an interview with the Financial Times as “a sparkle in a gloomy market”, the diamond is tipped to sell for $40m. Lucara’s share price raced up 40% after its discovery was made public.But magnificent finds of this ilk – it also has the 1,094ct ‘Seriti’ diamond among its large-stone inventory – don’t always translate into financial bonanzas for Lucara – not immediately anyway.It took two years to sell Lesedi La Rona (for $53m to specialist manufacturer Graff) after Lucara first put it on auction at Sotheby’s. At the time, the Sotheby’s auction was lambasted by the midstream of diamond cutters and polishers, who believed it should have been cut and polished into smaller stones. (After 18 months of cutting and polishing, Graff eventually produced the 302.37ct ‘Graff Lesedi La Rona’, the world’s largest square emerald cut diamond.)Lamb said in an interview with Miningmx last month that the midstream failed to recognise Lucara was seeking to put the stone “in storage” as a way of protecting the manufacturing industry. At the time, a bidder for Lesedi La Rona acknowledged it was struggling to sell five 100ct pieces.“The short and sweet of it is that these are not easy stones to move, if you looked at the universe of people that could afford the stone — you’ve got to be fairly selective.”As with Lesedi La Rona, the 2,488ct diamond might best reside with a single buyer. Lamb says it isn’t as white as Lesedi La Rona, owing to glitches, or dirt, in the diamond reflected as brown. However, a small piece that came off the diamond is interpreted by Lamb as a type D, or colourless, in the diamond grading scale, which by value is the highest-quality diamond — but then often the hardest to move.Lucara is entertaining all comers at the moment, including museums which want the Motswedi stone as a drawcard owing to its historic value. Trustees from a museum in Texas offered $42m for Lesedi La Rona.“We’ve had discussions with three different museums across the globe who want to acquire the (Motswedi) stone. They want it in the rough; they don’t want to polish it.”In the meantime, Lucara has collected the $24m balance of some $54m owned from the sale of the 549 carat Sethunya diamond and the 1,080 carat Eva Star recovered from Karowe previously.It is uncertain when revenue will be realised for these stones and as with the Sethunya stone, it may take some time for the value to be realised,” said Raj Ray, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets of the Motswedi and Seriti diamonds.Nonetheless, Karowe’s regular recovery of headline grabbing diamonds is bringing some much-needed support to Lucara’s balance sheet. “The sale of the Sethunya and Eva Star, plus those in inventory, continue to highlight the value of the Karowe mine, and continued recovery and sale of these high-quality stones, will do much to help bolster the balance sheet,” said Ray.A version of this article first appeared in the Financial Mail.The post Museums join queue for Lucara’s latest giant diamond appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com