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Diamond & Specialty Minerals Summary for Dec. 9, 2016

2016-12-09 21:12 ET - Market Summary

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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Friday was a ho-hum 67-63-136. The TSX Venture Exchange fell fractionally to 748 while polished diamond prices rose 0.2 per cent. Eric Friedland's Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. (PGD) gained 2.5 cents to 22 cents on 820,000 shares. Peregrine has been abnormally quiet of late, which is unusual since the company needs a major cash injection if it is to press ahead on its own with a big exploration program at Chidliak next year.

Lukas Lundin and Dr. William Lamb's Lucara Diamond Corp. (LUC) gained two cents to $3.18 on 917,000 shares. Lucara said late yesterday that it had sold $295-million (U.S.) worth of diamonds from its Karowe mine in Botswana during 2016. (The year still has three weeks to go, but Lucara has just wrapped up its last regular sale of gems for the year.) Lucara sold over 358,000 carats this year at an average of $823 (U.S.) per carat.

That is far greater than double the projected estimate of $301 (U.S.) per carat in the company's feasibility study several years ago, and it is entirely the result of the bounty of large and exceptional diamonds mined at Karowe. Dr. Lamb, president and chief executive officer, said that the average value of the Karowe diamonds sold this year drops to $649 (U.S.) per carat if the 813-carat gem that sold this summer for $63-million (U.S.) is excluded. That is still more than double the feasibility projection, but the sales figures still include 2,625 carats of large and exceptional gems that sold in two tenders for $90-million (U.S.). Removing those gems leaves Lucara's run-of-mine sales at 355,000 carats worth $400 (U.S.) per carat.

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