The largest diamond found in more than a century has been unearthed from Canadian company Lucara Diamond’s mine in Botswana. BBC reported. The Botswana government said the massive 2,492-carat stone is the biggest discovery since the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa in 1905. It said the diamond, which has not yet been named, is also the largest diamond ever discovered in the southern African state. It was found at the Karowe mine, located about 500 km north of Botswana’s capital, Gaborone.
According to the diamond industry, Botswana is one of the world’s largest diamond producers. BBCIn a statement, the Canadian firm said the stone is “one of the largest rough diamonds ever discovered”. “We are extremely pleased with the recovery of this exceptional 2,492-carat diamond. The ability to recover such a large, high-quality stone intact demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach to diamond recovery and our commitment to maximising value for our shareholders and stakeholders,” said William Lamb, head of Lucara Diamonds.
“This discovery reinforces Karowe’s position as a genuine world-class diamond mine and highlights the continued success of our operations and underground development strategy,” he said.
According to the statement, the diamonds were detected using Lucara’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology, which has been used since 2017 to identify and preserve high-value diamonds so they don’t break once they are crushed during the crushing process.
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The company did not provide any details about the quality of the diamond or its value. However, according to the company, no details were provided about the quality of the diamond or its value. financial TimesThose close to Lucara estimated the stone could be worth as much as $40 million.
“This discovery symbolizes Botswana’s continued rise as a global leader in diamond production. It represents not only the unique wealth found in Botswana’s soil, but also the remarkable progress the country has made in developing its diamond industry for the benefit of its citizens,” the Canadian company said.
Notably, this latest discovery joins an impressive list of other significant discoveries from the mine, including the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the Karowe mine in 2019, and was identified as the second-largest mined diamond in the world with 1,758 carats. It was purchased by French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed sum.
A 1,109-carat diamond extracted from the same mine in 2016 was bought in 2017 by Graff Diamonds chairman and London-based jeweler Lawrence Graff for $53 million.
