Biggest Diamond in 100 Years Discovered in Botswana

Miners in Botswana recently unearthed what officials say is the second largest diamond in mining history. The country's president Mokgweetsi Masisi presented the large stone to the public at a ceremony last week.

The 2,492-carat gem is the biggest diamond to be discovered since 1905. The diamond weighs around a half-kilogram. Masisi was one of the first people to get to hold it.

He expressed surprise at the diamond's heaviness and told the gathering, “I am lucky to have seen it in my time."

Lucara Diamond, a Canadian mining company, found the stone. Company officials said it was too early to value the gem or decide how it would be sold. A smaller uncut diamond from the same mine in Botswana sold for a record $63 million in 2016.

Naseem Lahri is a director with Lucara's Botswana team. “This is history in the making,” she said of the new find. “I am very proud. It is a product of Botswana.”

Lucara said in a statement last week that the company recovered what it called an “exceptional” diamond from Karowe Mine in central Botswana. Company miners used X-ray technology that is designed to find large, high-value diamonds.

“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara President and chief William Lamb said in a statement.

The weight would make it the largest diamond found in 119 years.

It also is the second-largest diamond ever mined, after the Cullinan Diamond. That 3,106-carat stone was unearthed in South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan was the source of several famous cut gems, including some among the British Crown Jewels.

Botswana, a country of 2.6 million people in southern Africa, is the second-biggest producer of natural diamonds behind Russia.

The Karowe Mine has produced four other diamonds over 1,000 carats in the last decade.

Before this discovery, the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the Karowe Mine in 2019, was recognized as the second-biggest mined diamond in the world at 1,758 carats. French fashion business Louis Vuitton bought the diamond. The sale price was not publicized.

A British jeweler bought the 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, also from Botswana's Karowe Mine, for $53 million in 2017. A Karowe diamond named The Constellation is the holder of the record $63 million sales price.

Diamonds form when carbon atoms are pushed close together by intense pressure conditions deep underground. Scientists say most diamonds are at least a billion years old and some of them more than 3 billion years old.

I'm John Russell.

Sello Motseta reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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carat – n. a unit of weight for precious stones that is equal to about 200 milligrams

ecstatic – adj. describes a state of overwhelming emotion

extraordinary – adj. going beyond what is usual, regular fashion – n. the prevailing style during a particular time