The Karowe diamond mine 100%-owned by Lucara (Photo: Lucara Diamond)

The Karowe diamond mine 100%-owned by Lucara (Photo: Lucara Diamond)

Lukas Lundin's Lucara Diamond (LUC:TSX) has been one of the best performing natural resource stocks this year.  Shares are up nearly 150% from this time last year on the back of their Karowe mine in Botswana continuing to produce a seemingly endless supply of exceptionally large and high-quality diamonds.

In late August, Lucara announced the dates of their third exceptional stone tender of 2014 which includes seven 'Type 2A' stones which are greater than 100 carats, including one magnificent 204-carat diamond of exceptional colour and quality which could prove to be one of the most valuable stones ever recovered from Karowe.  This tender is expected to be held on October 21st.

The first two exceptional stone tenders of 2014 brought in over $90 million.

Today, the company announced that they have been granted two precious stone prospecting licenses in the Orapa Kimberlite Field near their Karowe mine.  The company says both of these licenses are known to hold diamondiferous kimberlites.  The company applied for a total of four licenses.

- The 204-carat diamond to be sold at the October 21st exceptional stone tender (Photo: Lucara Diamond)

- The 204-carat diamond to be sold at the October 21st exceptional stone tender (Photo: Lucara Diamond)

William Lamb, CEO commented, "Lucara is extremely pleased to be granted these licenses and looks forward to working toward expanding our resource base. The Orapa kimberlite field is a world class location for diamond deposits and the opportunity to further evaluate known kimberlites within this region and provides the opportunity to apply knowledge gained from the Karowe mine to other pipes in the same region".

The granted licenses cover Block A and is 1.07 square-kilometres in size and was first discovered in 1967.  Block A is located 30km east of Karowe.  According to historical data, previous owners conducted sampling and trenching with very minimal drilling.  A total of 6 diamonds were >0.850mm in size. The thought of the previous owners was that these small diamonds were actually fragments of larger stones that were broken in the sampling process.  The company says it will conduct a full site assessment and locate areas amenable for the extraction of a large volume of kimberlite for diamond content and size distribution analysis.

The company also acquired Block E which is substantially larger than Block A and covers an area of 55.4 square-kilometres and is 15km north of Karowe. There are four known kimberlites on this license: AK11 to 14.  The AK12 kimberlite has an estimated surface area of 1 to 2.5 hectares and previous operators processed large diameter drill chips that confirmed that it was diamondiferous.

The company will develop a plan and budget once the permits and approvals are in place.

With the company trading at nearly $1 billion, I wouldn't expect the news to be too material to the share price.  That being said, in the longer-term watch for developments here as it could add to Karowe's production profile and even merit an expansion there should they find more big diamonds in Botswana.

The company is guiding between $240 and $250 million in revenue this year.  As of mid-August the company had generated $168.6 million in revenue.  With the third exceptional stone tender upcoming and the likely possibility that it will be the most profitable yet, I believe the company will far surpass their revenue projections for the year which could form the basis of a dividend increase next year (pure speculation/hope on my part).

Read: Lucara Awarded Two Precious Stone Prospecting Licences in Orapa District

Related: A Magnificent 204 Carat Diamond Will Headline Lucara's Third Exceptional Stone Tender of the Year 

Disclaimer: I am a former shareholder and I may initiate a long position in the near-term.  This is not investment advice.  Always do your own due diligence.