The Lucara Diamond Corp has closed its acquisition of African Diamonds, the diamond company announced Tuesday.

Lucara now holds 100% of the AK6 diamond development project in Botswana's Orapa/Letlhakane district.

Lucara President and CEO William Lamb issued a statement saying that the AK6 project was being developed rapidly and called the site "one of the few new diamond mines coming into production in the near term."

AK6 is noted for its high-quality rough diamonds, Lamb added, and is expected to have an operating life of over 12 years. Feasibility studies of the project published this year indicate that the site contains some 8.2 million carats of diamonds.