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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Tuesday was an 80-80-150 draw as the TSX Venture Exchange rose three points to 599. Adam Lundin and Dr. William Lamb's Lucara Diamond Corp. (LUC) closed unchanged at 35 cents on 106,000 shares. The company recorded a modest $8-million (U.S.) loss in its first quarter of 2022 -- a stretch that Dr. Lamb, president and chief executive officer, applauded as another solid operational quarter in which Lucara continued its record of sustainable diamond production from the Karowe mine in Botswana.

Indeed, all appears well at first glance -- the only look that most investors typically take. Even a second glance offers reassurance, if not optimism, as Dr. Lamb applauds that Lucara's "high-value diamond production forecast remains robust, underpinned by [the company's] focus on operating practices aligned with leading environmental, social and governance standards."

And so, Lucara says it made no changes to its 2024 guidance, a forecast revealed late last year. That prediction calls for the Karowe crew to mine up to 3.2 million tonnes of ore and process about 2.6 million to 2.9 million tonnes of it. The plant should yield between 345,000 and 375,000 carats of diamonds from that rock -- gems Lucara expects to sell for between $220-million (U.S.) and $250-million (U.S.).

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