A 1098-carat diamond was discovered this week in Botswana, in the Jwaneng mine, located a few dozen kilometers from Gaborone, in the southeastern part of the country. It is the third largest known diamond in history.
On Wednesday, Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi was able to hold in his hands a transparent stone the size of a clementine, confirmed to have the quality of a rough diamond.
The stone was discovered by a private company jointly owned by a South African diamond group and the state of Botswana. The president announced that the profits from the sale of diamonds would be invested “in the needs of national development”.
The gemstone has not yet been classified. But the second largest diamond in the world, which was also discovered on November 16, 2015 in Botswana, weighed about 100 carats more. It was then estimated at $ 53 million.
As the world’s two largest diamonds were seen for sale, it is now the largest owned by humans. This discovery “is extremely rare,” says gemologist Marie-Perle Harment.
Is kept whole or divided into tens?
What fate can be reserved for such an object? “We must first find a name for it: when such spectacular and historic stones are found, they must be baptized,” explains the specialist in gemstones. The last to be found in Botswana was named Lesidi La Rona and the people voted. ”
After that, the diamond ball will be auctioned off, Marie-Perle Harment continues. Once it has found a buyer, large consultations will be held between specialists to decide what to do with it – 60 stones, 40 stones? -, but it is its owner who will make the final decision. Will have cut the diamond probably with a laser, everything will be done by man, the gemologist concludes.
In anticipation of these steps, the President of Botswana considered the gemstone to be the symbol “of the process in which Botswana is engaged”, that is, the development of the country’s economy thanks to the richness of the underground. Wealth has been exploited since the 1960s, which today represents more than a quarter of GDP. Botswana is the third largest diamond producing country in the world.
► Also read: Botswana diamond eclipse
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