Lucara's subsidiary Clara Diamond Solutions has signed a collaboration agreement with Sarine to become the initial global customer for customised interfaces and versions of Sarine's Galaxy inclusion mapping technology and its Advisor optimal rough planning applications, which will be used with Clara's 100%-owned, proprietary digital diamond sales platform.

Clara is on track to launch in 2018, with inaugural rough diamond sales set to start later this quarter.

Clara uses patented analytics, combined with the latest cloud and blockchain technologies, to sell diamonds individually. Selected diamonds recovered at a mine site will undergo Galaxy inclusion mapping, creating a digital fingerprint that will be uploaded to the Clara platform, Lucara says.

At the same time, diamond buyers will be uploading their specific polished diamond requirements in terms of size, cut, colour and quality for their specific needs, creating an ‘order' within Clara. Clara will use Sarine's Advisor optimal rough planning technology, together with proprietary analytics, to match individual, scanned rough diamonds to the buyers' optimal polished requirements.

Lucara believes this technology has the potential to revolutionise diamond sales by eliminating the ‘batch'-style sales process that can only ever achieve average prices for parcels of stones sold. Clara sells diamonds individually and achieves the best possible price for each diamond.

"Using these technologies in combination with our proprietary analytics, Clara will sell rough diamonds on a stone-by-stone basis, based on a customers' specific requirements and needs, aligning rough diamond production to polished demand and unlocking significant value throughout the diamond pipeline," Lucara CEO Eira Thomas advises in a news release Monday.

The platform also allows consumers to accurately track the diamond source and provenance, with assurance that the diamonds have been recovered and sourced in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Clara is integrated with blockchain technology, meaning every rough diamond is tracked with a secure and indisputable record of its origins and ownership, providing peace of mind for consumers.

Clara will start sales on the platform using selected diamonds recovered from Lucara's Karowe diamond mine, in Botswana. Thereafter, other diamond producers and manufacturers will be invited to trial the Clara platform.