GABORONE, Botswana (AP) — The largest diamond discovered in over a century has been unearthed at a mine in Botswana. The country’s president displayed the fist-sized stone to the world at a viewing ceremony on Thursday.
The Botswana government states that the massive 2,492-carat stone is the second-largest ever found in a mine. It is the largest diamond discovered since 1905.
The yet-to-be-named diamond was presented to the world at the office of Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Weighing approximately half a kilogram, Masisi was among the first to hold it.
Officials noted it was too early to determine its value or decide how it would be sold. Another, smaller diamond from the same mine in Botswana was sold for $63 million in 2016, a record for a rough gem.
“This is history in the making,” said Naseem Lahri, the Botswana managing director for Lucara Diamond Corp., the Canadian mining company that unearthed the diamond. “I am very proud. It is a product of Botswana.”
Lucara stated in a Wednesday announcement that they recovered the “exceptional” rough diamond from their Karowe Mine in central Botswana. Lucara described it as a “high-quality” stone, found intact. It was located using X-ray technology designed to locate large diamonds.
“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara President and CEO William Lamb stated in a release.
Its weight would make it the largest diamond found in 119 years and the second-largest ever dug out of a mine after the Cullinan Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905. The famous Cullinan was 3,106 carats and was cut into gems, some of which form part of the British Crown Jewels.
A larger, less pure black diamond was discovered in Brazil in the late 1800s, but it was found above ground and believed to have been part of a meteorite.
Botswana, a country of 2.6 million people in southern Africa, is the second-biggest producer of natural diamonds behind Russia and has unearthed all of the world’s biggest stones in recent years. The Karowe Mine has produced four other diamonds over 1,000 carats in the last decade.
Prior to this discovery, the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the Karowe Mine in 2019, was recognized as the second-biggest mined diamond in the world at 1,758 carats. It was bought by French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed amount.
The 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, also from Botswana’s Karowe Mine, was bought by a British jeweler for $53 million in 2017. Another diamond from Karowe, The Constellation, was sold for the record $63 million.
Diamonds are formed when carbon atoms are squeezed together under high pressure deep underground. Scientists say most diamonds are at least a billion years old and some of them more than 3 billion years old.
