Editor’s Note
This remarkable discovery from Botswana challenges our understanding of diamond formation. The article explores the scientific significance of this exceptionally rare half-pink, half-colorless gem.
A breathtaking 37.41-carat diamond split between pink and colorless zones has emerged from Botswana, a discovery so rare it challenges everything we know about the formation of natural pink diamonds.
Discovered at Botswana’s famed Karowe mine, this extraordinary rough diamond is unlike anything gemologists or collectors have ever seen in this size. Measuring roughly one inch long and containing two sharply divided color zones, it represents an almost impossible convergence of geological conditions. According to experts at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) laboratory in Botswana, which examined the stone, the find is “astounding”, not just for its size, but for the sheer rarity of its dual coloration.
Natural pink diamonds are among the most coveted and scarce gemstones on Earth. To put their rarity into perspective: of all diamonds discovered globally, less than one-tenth of one percent display any pink coloration, and fewer still exhibit pure, vivid hues. Ninety percent of the world’s known pink diamonds were discovered at the legendary Argyle mine in Western Australia, which closed in 2020 after nearly four decades of production. With Argyle now exhausted, any new pink diamond discovery instantly commands international attention, especially one as geologically complex and visually striking as this.
Even more extraordinary is that it tells a double story of creation. GIA experts believe the pink half of the stone likely formed first as a colorless diamond, deep underground, more than 100 miles beneath the surface. Over millions of years, as continents shifted and mountains rose, the diamond endured just the right amount of plastic deformation, compressing and twisting the lattice structure enough to produce a pink hue.
