The second-largest diamond has been found in Africa
Lucara Diamond announced the discovery of a 2,492-carat (498.4-gram) diamond in Botswana.
The gem, which has not yet been named, was the second-largest gem ever found.
Only the famous “Cullinan”, found in 1905 in South Africa, was larger than it – 3106.75 carats or 621.35 grams.
But this stone was split into more than a hundred pieces back in the early 20th century.
The largest of the cut pieces of “Cullinan”, the “Great Star of Africa” diamond, weighs 530.2 carats and is stored in the British Tower.
Lucara Diamond has not announced anything about its plans for the find.
In 2019, another diamond was found – Sewelô (“Rare Find”), it weighed 1,758 carats, but was not considered a gem-quality stone, according to Bloomberg.
The new diamond was found using a special X-ray technology called Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray Transmission.
Such technology allows large gemstones to be detected and recovered as a whole.
The company installed it in 2017 to detect and preserve large, high-value diamonds.