16 Nov 2016

Lesedi La Rona Diamond has been withdrawn from the market and currently undergoing full analysis to determine the possible polished outcomes and subsequent true value.

The president of Lucara Mr William Lamb said in response to a BOPA questionnaire stating that Lucara expected to sell the diamond for more than P809 million.

Mr Lamb said the market was unsure about valuation as they would need to find a client to pay even more for the polished outcome.

Pricing he said may have attributed to its failure to sell, along with the inability for standard technology available to the clients to properly analyse the diamond.

The fundamentals which underlie Lucara’s economics he said were solid, saying the company may have moved too quickly to sell an item of such rarity.

Mr Lamb said they have taken a step back to look at the process followed and identify ways in which they could demonstrate the diamonds true value and uniqueness to the market.

The regular clients he said would have preferred to be sold on a more exclusive basis without the public display which the stone received.

Lucara however he said wanted to showcase the diamond and re-iterate the world the pontential that Botswana has to offer.

He further stated that Lucara is expected to bring the stone back to market in quarter one/quarter two of 2017. 

That he said would only happen once the analysis had been completed.

He said they continued to look at the options for the stone which included the potential to polish the stone. Mr Lamb said they have spoken to a number of museums who would be willing to showcase the stone. 

That he said was an option but did not derive value for the economy or the company. BOPA