Staff Reporter
Lucapa Diamond Company, which owns the Mothae Kimberlite Mine announced on Tuesday this week, that it has fully repaid all interest-bearing loans from Equigold and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa.
“Mothae Diamonds (Pty) Ltd (“Mothaeâ€) recently made its final interest payment of ZAR7.3 million to the IDC. The IDC loan has now been fully repaid,†Stephen Wetherall, Managing Director of Lucapa, said in a statement.
Wetherall said this month, Lucapa made the final instalment of US$1.3 million in principal and interest on the original US$15 million Equigold debt, raised in 2018.
“Equigold loan fully repaid. Mothae’s IDC loan settled in full. Lucapa is now interest-bearing debt free, repaying 30 million Australian dollars in debt and interest over 18 months,†read the statement.
Lucapa is an Australian-based diamond miner and explorer with assets in Africa and Australia.
It owns 70 percent of the Mothae diamond mine – a high-value kimberlite diamond mine located in Mokhotlong, approximately seven kilometers northwest of the Letšeng Diamond Mine. The government owns 30 percent of the mine.
Mothae mine commenced commercial production in 2019 and the large, high-value diamonds produced from this mine attract some of the highest prices/carat globally.
The mine was discovered by Basutoland Diamonds in 1961. Lucara Diamond, a company based in Canada, undertook the development of the mine in 2009 and carried out trial mining in November 2010.
The trial mining resulted in the production of more than 600,000 tonnes of kimberlite and the recovery of 23,000 carats of diamonds.
Lucapa acquired the Mothae project from Lucara in January 2017.
It was also issued the mining license for the project in the same month, which is valid until January 2027. The mining license can be further extended by ten years.
