Botswana has unearthed a massive 2,492-carat diamond, potentially one of the largest ever discovered

Botswana has announced the discovery of one of the largest diamonds ever found, a massive 2,492-carat stone unearthed at one of its mines. The Botswana government believes this remarkable find is the second-largest diamond ever extracted from a mine.

The Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp. revealed in a statement on Wednesday that it recovered the “exceptional” rough diamond from its Karowe Mine in Botswana. According to Lucara, the stone is of “high quality” and was found intact using X-ray technology.

Lucara’s president and CEO, William Lamb, expressed his excitement, stating, “We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond.”

This diamond, by weight, is the largest found in more than a century and is second only to the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, discovered in South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan was cut into gems, some of which are now part of the British Crown Jewels. The newly discovered diamond is estimated to be worth several hundred million dollars, though its exact value will depend on factors such as color, clarity, and the quality of the final cut stones.

A larger black diamond was discovered in Brazil in the late 1800s, but it was found above ground and is believed to have been part of a meteorite.

The newly discovered diamond will be showcased to the public at the office of Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, with the president being one of the first to view it. The government noted that this is the largest diamond ever found in Botswana, a country known as the world’s second-largest producer of diamonds, with a history of unearthing some of the biggest stones in recent years. The Karowe Mine has previously produced four diamonds exceeding 1,000 carats.

Before this discovery, the Sewelo diamond, found at the Karowe Mine in 2019, held the title of the second-largest mined diamond in the world at 1,758 carats. It was purchased by the French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed sum.

In 2017, the 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, also from Botswana’s Karowe Mine, was sold to a British jeweler for $53 million.

Scientists estimate that natural diamonds are at least a billion years old, with some being over 3 billion years old.