Giant diamond found in Canadian mine predicted to bring $90million at auction

It’s not often you stumble across a three-billion-year-old diamond ‘the size of a tennis ball’ but if you did you’d be pretty amazed at what you’ve found. A mine worker in a Botswanan mine owned by Lucara Diamond Corp, found just that and thought nothing of it, according to CEO of Lucara Diamond corp, William Lambe.

Speaking to The Canadian Press he said: “He’d only been working with us for two weeks, so he sees the thousand carats and goes ‘oh, this must be normal.”

Named Lesedi la Rona, meaning “our light” in the local Tswana language, the diamond was found back in November and weighs in at 1,109 carats – the second largest gem-quality rough diamond to ever be discovered.

Such an incredible discovery very nearly didn’t happen at all – with the diamond surviving modern mining practices including drilling, blasting, excavation, crushing and mechanised sorting.

“We were very lucky,” said Lamb.

Ahead of its summer auction in London, auctioneer Sotheby’s has estimated a potential sale of more than $90million, with it being the first rough diamond of its size to ever be presented at auction.

Source: The Globe and Mail

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