Image credit: Lucara Diamond
Lucara Diamond has recovered a 1,174.76 carat diamond from its 100% owned Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana.
It said in a statement that the diamond, measuring 77x55x33mm, is a cleavage gem of variable quality with significant domains of high-quality white gem material, and was recovered from the ore sourced from the EM/PK(S) unit of the South Lobe.
The 1,174-carat diamond represents the third +1,000 carat diamond recovered from the South Lobe of the AK6 kimberlite since 2015 including the 1,758-carat Sewelô and 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona.
"Lucara is delighted to be reporting another historic diamond recovery and its 3rd diamond over 1,000 carats, a world record for Karowe,” said company chief executive Eira Thomas.
“Although complex, these diamond recoveries do contain large domains of top colour white gem that will be transformed through our partnership with HB Antwerp into valuable collections of top colour polished diamonds, very much in high demand in the market today.”
Meanwhile, Thomas said that Lucara also recovered several other high-quality white gems up to 148 carats in size.
The Karowe mine has since the beginning of the year produced 17 diamonds greater than 100 carats, including 5 diamonds greater than 300 carats.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
