The second-largest diamond ever found – a rough 2,492-carat stone – has been unearthed in Botswana at a mine owned by Canadian firm Lucara Diamond.

It is the biggest find since the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, found in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels.

The diamond was found at Karowe mine, about 500km (300 miles) north of Botswana’s capital, Gaborone.

Botswana’s government said it was the largest diamond ever discovered in the southern African state.

The 1,098-carat stone, believed to be the third largest “gem-quality” diamond ever found, was presented to President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Wednesday.

The discovery was made earlier this month at the Jwaneng mine, around 75 miles from the country’s capital, Gaborone.

The mine is operated by Debswana, a diamond company jointly owned by Botswana’s government and the De Beers Group, according to its official website.

An official government Twitter account wrote that “proceeds from the diamond will be used to advance national development in the country.”

“Debswana should use this latest discovery as an inflection point, for the mine to use its technology to realize more of these large discoveries,” it added.

Masisi’s office also posted a series of pictures showing the diamond being presenting to the president and his cabinet.

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Officially opened in 1982, the Jwaneng mine usually yields between 12.5 million and 15 million carats of diamonds a year, according to Debswana. This month’s find is the largest gem unearthed by the company since diamonds were first discovered in Botswana in 1967, the government said.

At present, the largest diamond ever recorded is the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, found in South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan was subsequently cut into smaller stones, some of which form part of British royal family’s crown jewels.

The second largest discovery is believed to be the Lesedi La Rona, a 1,109-carat stone found by Canadian firm Lucara Diamond at the Karowe mine, also in Botswana, in 2015. The diamond was sold to luxury jeweler Graff for $53 million two years later.

Rough diamonds are usually classified as being gem-quality, near-gem or industrial-quality, depending on their color, clarity, size and shape.

So while another, even larger diamond was found in Botswana in 2019 — a 1,758-carat stone dubbed Sewelô — experts said it could not be considered entirely gem-quality. The stone was purchased by French luxury brand Louis Vuitton in 2020 for an undisclosed sum.

Speaking to CNN at the time of Sewelô’s discovery, Rob Bates, a blogger on the diamond and jewelry industries, told CNN that only “a handful” of companies in the world know how to “economically cut” such large rough diamonds.

“But it’s always an exciting moment when a mine coughs up a huge stone like that,” he said. “It’s good for the business, good for the country of Botswana.”

Uzi revealed that the diamond is his favourite and most expensive purchase yet, amazingly worth more than his multi-million dollar car collection and his home.

Taking to Instagram, the beloved rapper showed off the $24 million USD 11-carat shimmering stone surgically secured into his forehead.

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Accompanied by the caption “beauty is pain”, Elliot Eliantte, the jeweller that sold him the natural pink diamond, also shared a look at the Uzi sporting the stone in the studio.

Addressing his new look, Uzi said in series of IG Stories: “I just got a long bar in it because I just got it pierced and the swelling, when the swelling goes down, I’ll get a short bar so it won’t move.”

Take a closer look at the $24 million USD 11-carat pink diamond pink diamond implanted in Lil Uzi Vert’s forehead below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eliantte & Co (@eliantteandco)

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Simon Babaev of jeweler Eliantte & Co. outlined just how Lil Uzi Vert‘s now-infamous pink diamond was implanted into his forehead.

Apparently, the trend-setting project took four years to come to fruition with rapper paying off the $24 million USD price tag of the naturally coloured stone in installments.

“We didn’t think he was serious about it, but as he started making payments on the specific stone, he made it clear that he was very serious.”

Babaev also assured fans that the implantation is as safe as any other piercing if maintained correctly: “We made sure that prior to getting anything done that Uzi brought someone in to consult on everything. We didn’t just do this randomly.”

The system also goes beyond standard stainless or surgical-grade steel, and utilizes precious metals for a luxurious and safe implantation.

And, the “Megatron” rapper wants everyone to know that she didn’t pay for it. 

“Everybody said that you secured the bag, you married a multi-millionaire and you secured the bag,” said Minaj, who was dressed up as Tiffany Valentine from “The Bride of Chucky.” The rapper stayed in character, mimicking Jennifer Tilly’s distinctive voice.

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Petty, who matched his wife’s fly as serial killing doll Chucky, responded: “You know I just cut somebody’s (expletive) finger off for that ring,” as Minaj flashed her huge rock. 

“You mean, I didn’t buy this ring?” she asked. Petty replied, “No, you didn’t buy that ring!”

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Her hard-to-miss ring is from New-York based jeweler Rafaello & Company.

“Congrats to the King and Queen, We wish you both lots of love and happiness together,” the company wrote. “Thank you for trusting us with designing and making these very special pieces for you both. @nickiminaj.”

Here’s a closer look:

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Minaj, 36, announced her marriage to Petty, 41, on Instagram last week following nearly a year of dating. She shared her marital bliss with a video of matching “Mr. and Mrs.” mugs and coordinated “Bride” and “Groom” baseball caps. 

 “10•21•19,” the rapper captioned the footage, appearing to reference the lovebirds’ wedding date.

Source: usatoday.com

Tanzania’s mining industry will come under the spotlight today as two parliamentary committees are presenting reports to President John Magufuli, after investigating diamond and tanzanite mining deals.

The reports implicate several former ministers and top government officials in signing corrupt deals.

In one incident, the investigation found a top government official received a gift of diamonds worth $200m (£153m) in dubious circumstances.

The reports are also faulting the government for relying on mine company statistics for key data such as the size of the diamond reserve in the mining area.

These reports come as negotiations between the government and the Barrick Gold mining company are under way to resolve a tax payment dispute.

Earlier this year President Magufuli launched an extensive investigation into the mining industry and introduced strict mining laws as he argued the country was not getting a fair share of profit from its mineral resources.

The discovery was made by Pastor Emmanuel Momoh in an artisanal mine in the village of Koyadu in eastern Kono district, a government statement said on Thursday.

“A 706-carat diamond was presented to President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma yesterday evening,” the statement said.

“Receiving the diamond President Koroma thanked the chief and his people for not smuggling the diamond out of the country,” it added, referring to the Tankoro chiefdom where Momoh uncovered the gem.

The diamond will be sold in Sierra Leone with a “transparent” bidding process to the benefit of the community and country, the statement said.

“I have to help the government and my people, so all of us can benefit,” presidential spokesman Abdulai Bayraytay quoted the pastor as saying.

Sierra Leone’s government has attempted to crack down on cross-border diamond trafficking to persuade foreign investors that “blood diamonds” that fuelled its civil war are a thing of the past.

‘Exceptional discovery’

Diamond expert Paul Zimnisky told the AFP news agency that once the gem’s quality was assessed it could rank “between the 10th and 15th largest gem-diamonds ever recovered”.

The US-based analyst said such a find by a so-called artisanal miner, the term for workers who use basic tools or their bare hands to sift the earth, was highly unusual.

“Most recent exceptional diamond discoveries have been made by large commercial miners that mine very large volumes of kimberlite ore and process it with advanced equipment,” Zimnisky said.

Even though diamonds can be found in about a quarter of Sierra Leone, the country of about six million people is one of the world’s five poorest nations, according to the United Nations.

source: aljazeera.com