One of the world’s biggest diamonds has been uncovered in Botswana, the country’s government has reported.
The 1,098-carat stone, believed to be the third largest “gem-quality” diamond ever found, was introduced to President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Wednesday.
The revelation was made earlier at the Jwaneng mine, around 75 miles from the nation’s capital, Gaborone. The mine is operated by Debswana, a diamond organization jointly owned by Botswana’s government and the De Beers Group, according to its official website.
An official government Twitter account composed that “proceeds from the diamond will be used to advance national development in the country.”
“Debswana should use this latest discovery as an inflection point, for the mine to use its technology to realize more of these large discoveries,” it added.
Masisi’s office likewise posted a series of pictures showing the diamond being introducing to the president and his cabinet.
Officially opened in 1982, the Jwaneng mine typically yields between 12.5 million and 15 million carats of diamonds per year, as per Debswana. The current month’s find is the biggest gem uncovered by the organization since diamonds were first found in Botswana in 1967, the government said.
As of now, the biggest jewel at any point recorded is the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, found in South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan was consequently cut into more modest stones, some of which structure part of British regal family’s royal gems.
The second biggest revelation is accepted to be the Lesedi La Rona, a 1,109-carat stone found by Canadian firm Lucara Diamond at the Karowe mine, additionally in Botswana, in 2015. The precious stone was offered to luxury jeweler Graff for $53 million two years after the fact.
Rough diamonds are generally named being diamond gem-quality, near-gem or industrial-quality, depending on their color, clarity, size and shape.
So while another, much bigger diamond was found in Botswana in 2019 – a 1,758-carat stone named Sewelô – specialists said it couldn’t be considered altogether diamond quality. The stone was bought by French luxury brand Louis Vuitton in 2020 for an undisclosed sum.
Addressing CNN at the hour of Sewelô’s revelation, Rob Bates, a blogger on the diamond and jewelry industries, revealed to CNN that solitary “a handful” of companies on the world know how to “economically cut” such large rough diamonds.
“But it’s always an exciting moment when a mine coughs up a huge stone like that,” he said. “It’s good for the business, good for the country of Botswana.”