Botswana discovers ‘exceptional diamond’

Botswana has announced its discovery of one of the largest diamonds ever in one of its mines, and the second largest diamond ever extracted from any mine.

The Botswana government believes the huge, 492-carat diamond is the largest detected in the country and said it will be on display later on Thursday.

Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp said in a statement that it had extracted the “exceptional diamond” from the Caroy mine in western Botswana. “It’s a high-quality diamond, we found it intact, and we located it using X-ray technology,” it added.

The huge weight of the discovered diamond is the largest found more than 100 years ago, and the second largest diamond ever extracted from a mine after the Collinan diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905.

As per the Arabic daily Al Rai, the diamond’s weight was 3106 carats, cut into gems, some of which are within the jewels of the British crown. Botswana is the second largest producer of diamonds and has discovered the world’s largest diamonds in recent years.