(IDEX Online News) – Lucapa Diamond Company Limited reported that it sold 1,931 carats of Lulo diamonds, achieving record gross revenues of AUD$32.5 million ($23.1 million). The average selling price per carat was AUD$16,831 ($11,983).

The revenue total and average sale price was boosted by the sale of the largest recorded diamond ever recovered in Angola – a 404-carat Type II-a diamond – which sold for AUD$22.5 million ($16 million) in February.

The Lulo alluvial mining company is an agglomeration of Lucapa, Endiama and Rosas & Petals – with the miner receiving 40 percent of the proceeds from sales. In March, the company announced that its net share of the special cash distribution totaled AUD$8.3 million ($5.9 million).

To-date, Lulo has generated AUD$51.3 million ($38.1 million) in gross revenues from the sale of alluvial diamonds recovered from the mining and exploration phases. The average overall price per carat currently stands at AUD$4, 233 ($3,147).

Lucapa said that production at Lulo during the quarter had increased to 3,088 carats – a 131-percent increase compared to the same period a year previously. Production in the first quarter also saw a 44-percent increase compared to the December 2015 figure.

Average diamond size also increased to 1.37 carats compared to 1.01 carats over the same period in the prior year. It also represented a slight increase over December’s 1.35-carat average size.

The company reiterated that operations at Lulo were impacted by plant downtime, as well as heavy rains restricting access to Mining Block 8. In response to the latter conditions, Lucapa and its partners switched focus to trial-mining of higher value areas, such Mining Block 6 and E46. The company said that at the end of the Angolan wet season, which usually concludes in April, it will scale up alluvial diamond production from Mining Blocks 6 and 8.