One of the world’s largest diamonds has been discovered in Botswana, the country’s government officials announced.
The discovery was made at Debswana’s Jwaneng mine, located roughly 75 miles from the nation’s capital, Gaborone, earlier this month.
Debswana Diamond Company’s managing director Lynette Armstrong presented the stone to President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Wednesday. The 1,098-carat diamond is believed to be the third largest in the world, behind the 3,106-carat Cullinan stone discovered in South Africa in 1905 and the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona gem found by Lucara Diamonds in Botswana in 2015.
“This is the largest diamond to be recovered by Debswana in its history of over 50 years in operation,” Armstrong said.
“From our preliminary analysis it could be the world’s third largest gem quality stone. We are yet to make a decision on whether to sell it through the De Beers channel or through the state owned Okavango Diamond Company,” Armstrong said.
Minerals minister Lefoko Moagi said the discovery of the still-to-be-named diamond, which measures 73mm long, 52mm wide and 27mm thick, could not have happened at a better time as the pandemic caused diamond sales to dramatically decline last year.
The official Botswana Government Twitter account wrote 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 continued.
