Australia-based diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company and the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho have announced the restart of scaled mining operations at the Mothae kimberlite diamond mine.
The mine was put on care and maintenance during the coronavirus lockdown.
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Isolation measures forced the suspension of operations at the mine in late March this year to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Mining and treatment operations have now restarted at Mothae in compliance with advised health measures to ensure the safety of its employees and contractors.
Lucapa will scale the operations to about 75% of capacity due to the pandemic related protocols in place.
Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall said: “Mothae is an important contributor to the Basotho nation and Lucapa and the Government of Lesotho are excited to have most of our teams and contractors back at the mine.
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By GlobalData“We too look forward to implementing recently approved marketing initiatives that will see additional value derived for the Mothae high-value production.”
Lucapa operates mines in Angola (Lulo) and Lesotho (Mothae).
In May, Lucapa and its partners Endiama and Rosas & Petalas announced the restart of scaled operations at the Lulo mine.
In January last year, Lucapa began commercial recoveries at the Mothae diamond mine. The company owns a 70% interest in the project and the Government of Lesotho holds the remaining 30%.
In December 2018, Lucapa began commercial diamond production at the Mothae mine.
