VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 19 (UPI) ─ The Lucara Diamond Corp. announced Thursday that miners in Botswana have unearthed the second-largest diamond ever found.
A statement by the Canadian-based company said the 1,111-carat diamond, slightly smaller than a tennis ball, came from its Karowe Mine in Botswana, a landlocked country in southern Africa. Only the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, discovered in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine stones, some of which comprise Britain’s Crown Jewels, as well as 96 smaller stones, is a larger find.
Diamonds of 874 carats, the sixth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found, and 374 carats, were recently mined at the Karowe site.
“The significance of the recovery of a gem-quality stone larger than 1,000 carats, the largest for more than a century… cannot be overstated. I am truly at a loss for words. This has been an amazing week for Lucara with the recovery of the second largest and also the sixth largest gem-quality diamonds ever mined,” said Lucara CEO William Lamb.
While the end buyer of the diamond remains to be seen, “There will be huge prestige in owning the largest diamond that’s not part of a royal collection,” said FinnCap Ltd. mining analyst Martin Potts.
A 12.03-carat blue diamond was purchased at auction last week for $48.4 million by Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau.
