One of the world's largest diamonds from Lesotho mine
Miners in the southern African kingdom of Lesotho have found one of
the world's largest diamonds, a near-flawless white gem weighing nearly
500 carats, the diamond mining group responsible for the discovery said.
The
diamond was discovered in the Letseng Mine on September 8, the company
said in a statement.
It has been analysed by experts in Antwerp and found to be of
outstanding colour and clarity with very few inclusions and weighing 478
carats.
"It has the potential to yield one of the largest flawless D colour
round polished diamonds in history," the company said.
Letseng is one of the most productive mines in history - four of the
world's 20 largest rough diamonds have been found at the mine, including
the three largest found this century.
Before it is cut into gems, it is hard to value the diamond, but a
spokesman for the diamond company said a similar weight stone with
lesser-quality colour and clarity had recently sold for $12 million
(around 5.5 million pounds).
"Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it
will yield a record breaking polished stone of the very best colour and
clarity," Clifford Elphick, the chief executive of the company, said in
a statement.
The minister for natural resources in Lesotho, an impoverished
mountain kingdom in eastern South Africa, praised the productivity of
the mine, one of the highest in the world at more than 3,000 metres
(10,000 feet).
"Once again, Letseng has proved its ability to produce extraordinary
diamonds and continues to place Lesotho at the forefront of diamond
producing countries," Monyane Moleleki said in a statement.
Letseng is 70 per cent owned by the diamond company and 30 per cent
owned by the government of Lesotho.
The world's largest diamond is the Cullinan, discovered in South
Africa in 1905.
It weighed more than 3,100 carats before it was cut into more than
one hundred separate gems, many of which are part of the British crown
jewels.
- Reuters
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