The world’s second-largest diamond ever discovered has been unearthed in a mine in Botswana, a leading diamond-producing country, the Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp. announced on Thursday.
The enormous 2,492-carat diamond was found at the Karowe Diamond Mine in northeastern Botswana, using advanced x-ray detection technology, according to a statement from Lucara Diamond Corp. While the company did not disclose the diamond’s value or quality, the stone ranks second in carat size only to the 3,016-carat Cullinan Diamond, which was discovered in South Africa in 1905.
“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” said Lucara president William Lamb in the statement.
Photos released by Lucara show that the diamond is roughly the size of a human palm.
The statement described the diamond as “one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed,” detected using the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology, which was installed in 2017 to identify and preserve large, high-value diamonds.
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi was scheduled to view the massive diamond later on Thursday. The government confirmed that it is the second-largest diamond in the world.
Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe’s largest online diamond jeweler, 77 Diamonds, verified that it is the largest rough diamond discovered since the Cullinan Diamond, parts of which now adorn Britain’s crown jewels.
“This discovery is largely thanks to newer technology that allows larger diamonds to be extracted from the ground without breaking into pieces. So we will likely see more where this came from,” he remarked.
Botswana is one of the world’s top diamond producers, with diamonds accounting for 30% of the country’s GDP and 80% of its exports.
Prior to this recent find, the largest diamond discovered in Botswana was a 1,758-carat stone, also unearthed by Lucara at the Karowe mine in 2019, which was named Sewelo. In 2021, Lucara discovered a 1,174-carat diamond in Botswana using the same x-ray technology.
