The world’s third largest diamond found in Africa

The third largest diamond found in the history of mankind is found in Botswana. It weighs 1,098 carats and was officially unveiled yesterday, two weeks after being mined by Debswana.

The gemstone, recognized as the third largest white diamond in the world, is 7.3 centimeters long, 5.2 centimeters wide and 2.7 centimeters thick. The weight of the find is 1098 carats.

It is slightly lighter than the second largest diamond, named Our Light (Lesedi la Rona), also found in 2015 in Botswana, a country considered the largest diamond mining country in Africa.

The new stone will be evaluated in the coming weeks, after which Botswana’s state-owned diamond trading company will decide whether to buy it from Debswana or let De Beers sell it.

The mine, where the outstanding gem was discovered on June 1, is being developed by the Debswana consortium, which is 50% owned by the state of Botswana and another 50% by De Beers, which is the world’s largest diamond producer. The stone was found in a mine called Jwaneng, which has been in development since 1972. Considering the total value of all diamonds found in it over the years, it is considered the “richest” in the world.

The value of the new diamond has yet to be determined, but the second largest diamond was sold in 2017 for $ 53 million.

The world’s largest diamond, the Cullinan, is larger than the second and third combined. It was found in 1905 in South Africa and is valued at 3106 carats. Three years later, it was split into over 100 fragments. The largest of them, a teardrop-shaped “Big Star of Africa” ​​weighing 530 carats, crowned the scepter of the English king Edward VII, and is now kept in the Tower of London.

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