Australia’s Lucapa Diamond has agreed on a deal to buy the Merlin diamond project for some A$ 23 million (US$18 million). The Australian project was previously mined by Rio Tinto and Ashton Dia-monds.
The takeover adds “a near-term development opportunity in Australia to Lucapa’s existing two producing assets,” according to Lucapa Diamond.
Merlin is home to the country’s largest mined rough diamond on record, Lucapa Diamond said, adding that the project “has the potential to be the only producing diamond mine in Australia” after the closure of the Argyle mine last year.
Stephen Wetherall, the managing director of Lucapa, said that the acqui-sition “is a strategic acquisition for Lucapa which represents a value-ac-cretive and logical step in Lucapa’s production strategy. The project is well known for being Australia’s large stone producer and is a strong com-plementary fit with the Company’s two existing niche productions in Africa that are set to produce solid returns for Lucapa in 2021.”