Lucara's first tender of rough diamonds from its Mothae mine in Lesotho yielded gross proceeds of $8.18 million, the company announced Monday.

Forty-two lots of diamonds that totaled 9,381.35 carats were sold in Antwerp for an average per-carat price of $871.70. The three most valuable diamonds tendered were a 13.87-carat stone that sold for $43,000/carat; a 24.57-carat diamond that sold for $32.351/carat and a 20.13-carat diamond that fetched a per-carat price of $27,995.

Managing Director of Mothae Diamonds Nyakallo Mpatuoa said that Lucara's 75%-owned subsidiary was "very pleased with the market response to Mothae production and confirmation of the exceptional value of our diamonds."

Mothae Diamonds is looking forward to its next sale, expected to take place later this year, to "provide further price discovery" for the Mothae diamond product.