ASX-listed Lucapa Diamonds has secured funding of up to A$19 million for the acquisition and advancement of the Mothae kimberlite diamond project in Lesotho.

The Lucapa Diamonds funding package includes the underwriting of LOMOA options, a bridging loan and the issue of new options.

When combined with cash repatriated from the Lulo diamond mine in Angola, the funding package leaves Lucapa Diamonds on track to commence commissioning Mothae in the first quarter of 2018 under a staged, low-risk development plan.

Mothae’s production will complement the high-value production from the Lulo alluvial diamond mine, which delivered the world’s highest average US$/carat prices in 2016.

Like Lulo, Lucapa Diamonds considers Mothae to be a premium-quality diamond asset. Mothae has recovered large and valuable diamonds from historical bulk sampling and is located in the heart of the highest-price cluster of kimberlite diamond mines in the world – within 5 km of Letseng mine.

Lucapa Diamonds is able to commit to developing Mothae because the 8.8 ha kimberlite pipe has been well defined through drilling and trial mining.

The trial mining produced more than 23 000 carats of diamonds, which included individual stones of up to 254 carats and Type IIa diamonds which achieved actual sale prices of up to US$41 500/carat.

The high-value nature of the resource is also reflected in the independent JORC resource estimate for Mothae of more than 1 million carats of diamonds at a modelled average diamond value of US$1 063/carat – the second highest JORC average price per carat in the world.

While the JORC classified resource has been estimated to a depth of 300m, independent modeling of the Mothae kimberlite pipe extends to 500 m.