Reports say a Canadian mining company in Botswana discovered one of the world’s largest diamonds, a rough 2,492-carat stone, on Thursday.
Lucara Diamond Corp, in a statement, said the diamond was unearthed in the Karowe Diamond Mine in northeastern Botswana, about 430 kilometres (270 miles) from the capital, Gaborone. The value of the find and its quality were not stated.
The stone’s carat weight is not too different from that of the largest gem-quality diamond ever found, the Cullinan Diamond, which weighed 3,016.75 carats and was discovered in South Africa in 1905.
“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara president and CEO William Lamb said in the statement.
This find was “one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed” and detected using the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology, the statement said.
Botswana is one of the leading diamond producers globally, with diamonds serving as its primary revenue source.
Before the recent discovery, the biggest diamond in Botswana was the Sewelo, a 1,758-carat gem mined by Lucara in 2019.