Editor’s Note
This article reports on the discovery of a 2,492-carat diamond in Botswana, now the second-largest gem-quality diamond ever found. The find highlights the region’s significant mineral wealth and the ongoing potential for major discoveries in the mining sector.
An exceptionally large diamond, the second largest in the world at 2,492 carats and barely fitting in the palm of a hand, was found in a mine in Botswana, a Canadian mining company announced on Thursday.
This precious stone, detected in the Karowe mine in northeastern Botswana, Africa’s leading diamond producer, is “one of the largest rough diamonds ever discovered,” Lucara Diamond Corp. highlighted in a statement. According to the Botswana government and several experts, it is believed to be the second largest ever found on Earth. In terms of carats, it is not far from the world’s largest known diamond, the Cullinan, which weighed over 3,100 carats and was unearthed in South Africa in 1905.
The diamond was to be presented to President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who noted it is the largest ever found in the southern African country, as well as to the press in Gaborone in the afternoon.
According to him, this largely translucent large stone is “the largest rough diamond unearthed since the discovery of the Cullinan diamond,” which was cut into several pieces, the largest of which were “set into the British Crown Jewels.” This discovery is “largely due to recent” X-ray detection technology, developed by Lucara and used since 2017, “which allows larger precious stones to be extracted from the ground without breaking into pieces,” the specialist noted.
Botswana is one of the world’s largest diamond producers, with diamonds constituting its main source of revenue, representing 30% of GDP and 80% of its exports. As Lucara highlights in its statement, diamond revenues bring “significant socio-economic benefits” to Botswana, funding “essential areas such as education and health” as well as infrastructure in this country of 2.6 million inhabitants.
Prior to the discovery announced Thursday, the largest diamond found in Botswana was a 1,758-carat stone also extracted by Lucara in 2019 and named Sewelo, meaning “rare discovery” in the Tswana language. Roughly the size of a tennis ball, it was purchased by Louis Vuitton, a flagship brand of the luxury giant LVMH, for an undisclosed price. Lucara also recalled in its statement having found a 1,174-carat diamond in Botswana in 2021, using the same X-ray technology employed to identify this week’s exceptionally large rough diamond.