Editor’s Note
This article reports the discovery of a 2,492-carat diamond in Botswana, described as one of the largest rough diamonds ever found.
An exceptionally large diamond – the second largest in the world – barely fits in the palm of a hand. Canadian mining company Lucara announced on Wednesday, August 21, that it had found a 2,492-carat diamond at the Karowe mine in northeastern Botswana, Africa’s leading diamond producer. This half-kilogram precious stone is
, Lucara emphasized in a statement.
According to the Botswana government and several experts, this would be the second largest diamond ever found on Earth. In terms of carats, it is not far from the world’s largest known diamond, the “Cullinan,” weighing over 3,100 carats, which was unearthed in South Africa in 1905.
said William Lamb, CEO of Lucara, as quoted in the statement, which provided no details on the discovery’s value or quality. According to the Financial Times, citing sources close to Lucara, the stone could be worth more than $40 million.
Lucara Botswana’s Managing Director, Naseem Lahri, presented the stone to the country’s President, Mokgweetsi Masisi, on Thursday afternoon.
he later stated, congratulating the company.
added the President. Lucara specified that it pays the Botswana government a 10% royalty on the gross sales value of diamonds produced at Karowe.
noted Tobias Kormind, Managing Director of 77 Diamonds, Europe’s largest online jeweler. According to him, this largely translucent large rock is
which was cut into several pieces, the largest of which were set into the British Crown Jewels.
This discovery is
of X-ray detection, developed by Lucara and used since 2017,
the specialist emphasized.
emerge, he added.
The Karowe mine began production in 2012, and since then, Lucara has sold 216 diamonds worth over one million dollars and 11 diamonds worth over 10 million dollars, according to the company. Botswana is one of the world’s largest diamond producers by volume and the most significant by value, according to the IMF. Diamonds constitute its primary source of revenue, representing 30% of its GDP and 80% of its exports.
As Lucara notes in its statement, diamond revenues bring
to Botswana, funding
as well as infrastructure in this country of 2.6 million inhabitants.
Before the discovery announced on Thursday, the largest diamond found in Botswana was a 1,758-carat stone also extracted by Lucara in 2019 and named Sewelo, meaning
in the Tswana language. 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 recalls in its statement that it also found a 1,174-carat diamond in Botswana in 2021, using the same X-ray technology employed this week to identify the exceptionally large rough diamond.