A high-quality diamond weighing 1,098.30-carats was unearthed in early June at the Jwaneng Mine in Botswana, which is owned by Debswana – a mining joint venture between the Botswanan government and De Beers Group.
A week later, Lucara Diamond then went ‘one better’ by unearthing a 1,174.76-carat rough at its Karowe Mine, also in Botswana. Lucara is a Canadian company with mining and exploration licenses in the African nation.
The Karowe site – which is 100 per cent owned by Lucara – is said to be one of the world’s foremost producers of Type IIA diamonds in excess of 10 carats.
Eira Thomas, president and CEO Lucara, said, “Lucara is delighted to be reporting another historic diamond recovery and its third diamond over 1,000 carats – a world record for Karowe.”
Thomas, who is a geologist with more than 25 years of experience in the Canadian mining industry, added, “Although complex, these diamond recoveries do contain large domains of top colour white gem that will be transformed through our partnership with HB Antwerp into valuable collections of top colour polished diamonds, very much in high demand in the market today.”
Lynette Armstrong, managing director Debswana, offered some background about the 1,098-carat discovery: "With the recent introduction of a modern, state-of-the-art large diamond pilot plant, I have every hope that we will be able to recover more large diamonds.
"This, by all standards, is a great metallurgical achievement; to recover a diamond of this size intact through our conventional ore processing plant.”
Background reading: World's Most Famous Diamonds
Debswana operates four mines in Botswana and claims to be the country’s largest private sector employer, with more than 5,000 staff on mining sites and a further 5,000 fixed-term contractors.
The company’s diamond mining operations are located at Orapa, Letlhakane, Damtshaa and Jwaneng. It also owns and operates the Morupule coal mine.
Diamonds were first discovered in Botswana in 1967 and a De Beers-backed mining company was established in 1969.
According to Armstrong, the 1,098-carat diamond – which measures in at 73 mm long, 52 mm wide and 27 mm thick – is the largest gem-quality diamond found in Debswana's mines in the company's more-than-50-year history.
On the other hand, the Lucara diamond measures 77 mm long, 55 mm wide and 33 mm thick. The company describes it as “of variable quality with significant domains of high-quality white gem material”, meaning it is a lower-quality rough that needs to be split before being processed further, similar to the 1,758-carat Sewelô diamond Lucara unearthed in 2019, which was later sold to Louis Vuitton.
For that reason, the Debswana discovery could lay claim to being larger than the Lucara stone and for that reason it could be described as Africa's third-largest gem-quality diamond, behind the 3,106-carat Cullinan and 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona stones.
The famous Cullinan was discovered in South Africa in 1905 while the Lesedi La Rona was unearthed in Botswana in 2015, also by Lucara.
More reading:
Louis Vuitton purchases second large Botswana diamond
Louis Vuitton buys record-breaking Botswana diamond
Fancy colour diamonds found in Botswana as Argyle closure approaches
Huge diamond found in Botswana
World’s fifth largest diamond unearthed
World’s largest diamond finally sells
Background reading:
The Great Diamond Debate I - Natural Vs Synthetic
The Great Diamond Debate II - Fact Vs Fiction
World's Most Famous Diamonds