The second-largest diamond ever to be pulled from the Earth, coming in at a whopping 2,492 carats, was dug out of a mine in Botswana by a Canadian company.
The Vancouver-based Lucara Diamond Corp. announced the “remarkable find” in a press release, showing off photos of the fist-sized rock. The company has unearthed numerous other massive diamonds at its Karowe Mine in Botswana, but this as-of-yet-unnamed stone blows the rest out of the water.
The historic diamond was unveiled to the world at a viewing ceremony at the office of Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who was one of the first people to hold it. The gem, weighing in at half a kilogram, is considered the largest diamond found in over a century.“This is history in the making,” said Naseem Lahri, the Botswana managing director for Lucara. “I am very proud. It is a product of Botswana.”
Officials said it was too early to value it or decide how it should be sold, but another diamond from the same mine sold for a record $63 million in 2016. That diamond, called the Constellation, was only 813 carats, less than a third of the size of the one that was recently discovered.
The title of largest diamond ever unearthed is held by the famous Cullinan Diamond, which was dug up in 1905 in South Africa while it was under British rule. The gem measured an incredible 3,106 carats but ended up being split into numerous smaller cut diamonds, some of which now grace the British Crown Jewels.
But there once existed an even larger diamond than the Cullinan, though it was an impure black diamond, known as a carbonado. It wasn’t unearthed, but rather found above ground in Brazil in the late 1800s. Geologists believe it could have originated from a meteorite.
The Sergio carbonado was broken up into small pieces to be used as industrial diamond drill bits, according to a paper from the University of New Hampshire. Carbonado is a high-density form of natural diamond and is one of the toughest materials on Earth.