One of the biggest diamonds in history has been discovered in the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa.
Gem
Diamonds Ltd. found the 910-carat stone, about the size of two golf
balls, at its Letseng mine. It’s a D color Type IIa diamond, which means
it has very few or no nitrogen atoms and is one of the most expensive
stones. The diamond is the fifth-biggest ever found.
The Letseng
mine is famous for the size and quality of the diamonds it produces and
has the highest average selling price in the world. Gem sold a 357-carat
stone for $19.3 million in 2015 and in 2006 found the 603-carat Lesotho
Promise.
“This exceptional top-quality diamond is the largest to
be mined to date and highlights the unsurpassed quality of the Letseng
mine,” Chief Executive Officer Clifford Elphick said in a statement.
Gem
did not say how it will sell the diamond or what it could be worth. Its
value will be determined by the size and quality of the polished stones
that can be cut from it. Lucara Diamond Corp. sold a 1,109-carat
diamond for $53 million last year, but got a record $63 million for a
smaller 813-carat stone it found at the same time in 2015.
“The
pricing of diamonds is hugely variable and driven by a multitude of
factors,” said Ben Davis, an analyst at Liberum Capital Markets. “But
assuming that there are no large inclusions running through the diamond,
we initially estimate a sale of $40 million.”
Gem’s mega
discovery follows news last week that it had found 117-carat and
110-carat stones. It will be another boost for the company that dropped
to a record low last year after prices for its stones fell and it was
forced to close a new mine in Botswana. Gem rose as much as 18%, the
biggest intraday gain since 2010, and traded at 93 pence, or about
$1.27, Monday morning in London.
The three large discoveries will
raise investor confidence that the company has overcome a shortage of
large stones and that it can recover the biggest diamonds without
breaking them. Gem found at least seven stones bigger than 100 carats in
2017 and five the year before. It recovered a dozen exceeding 100
carats in 2015.
The
biggest diamond discovered is the 3,106-carat Cullinan, found near
Pretoria, in South Africa, in 1905. It was cut to form the Great Star of
Africa and the Lesser Star of Africa, which are set in the Crown Jewels
of Britain. Lucara’s 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona is the second-biggest,
with the 995-carat Excelsior and 969-carat Star of Sierra Leone the
third- and fourth-largest.
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