Botswana has announced the discovery of a colossal diamond, the largest ever found in the country and the second largest in the world. The remarkable 2,492-carat stone was unveiled during a ceremony on August 22 at the office of President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who was among the first to hold the half-kilogram gem. “It is overwhelming,” Masisi remarked, expressing his awe and inviting senior government officials to admire the stone.
The Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp. announced on August 21 that it recovered the high-quality, intact diamond from its Karowe Mine in northern Botswana using X-ray technology. While it’s too early to determine the stone’s value or how it will be sold, Lucara is optimistic about its potential. A smaller diamond from the same mine fetched a record $63 million in 2016.
Botswana, the world’s second-largest diamond producer after Russia, has been the source of several of the largest diamonds in recent years. Diamonds form deep underground under high pressure, with natural diamonds being at least a billion years old.
This 2,492-carat diamond is the largest found in 119 years, second only to the legendary Cullinan Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905, which weighed 3,106 carats and was cut into gems for the British Crown Jewels. Although a larger black diamond was found in Brazil in the late 1800s, it was discovered above ground and is believed to have originated from a meteorite.
The Karowe Mine has been a prolific source of massive diamonds, producing four other stones over 1,000 carats in the last decade. Before this latest find, the Sewelo diamond, discovered at Karowe in 2019, was the second-largest mined diamond at 1,758 carats and was purchased by French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed amount.
Researched by Tunde Ojediran.
Student intern, XGALogic Inc.
For 1stAfrika 2024.
