Money & Industry

198-Carat Gem Quality White Diamond Found in Letseng Mine in Lesotho

198-Carat Gem Quality White Diamond Found in Letseng Mine in Lesotho
Bernadine Racoma

Gem Diamonds announced last Tuesday that its Letseng Mine in Lesothohas unearthed another large gem quality white diamond. The rough white dazzling diamond weighs 198 carats and measures 1.18 inches across. The find was of very high quality and shows no fluorescence. It is expected to fetch a substantial price. Gem Company looks to the sale of this latest diamond find this year.

Letseng Mine

The Letseng mine is located in the Maluti Mountains in the small kingdom of Lesotho in South Africa. It is one of the world’s highest located diamond mines, situated about 10,000 feet or 3,100 meters up in the mountain. Letseng mine, 70% owned by Gem Diamonds and 30% owned by the Lesotho government, has been producing some of the largest rough diamonds in the world. It has already delivered 5 of the top 20 large white diamonds ever recorded since 1905. In 2006 it unearthed the 603-carat white diamond called Lesotho Promise.

In 1967 the mine gave up the 601-carat Lesotho Brown. One of the polished diamond gems cut from it, Lesotho III, a marquise-shaped 40.42 carat gem, was given to Jackie Kennedy by her husband Aristotle Onassis. The ring was valued at about US$600,000 but was ultimately sold by her estate for US $2,587,500 in 1996. The 493-carat Letseng Legacy that was found in 2007 fetched $10 million. In 2008 the mine yielded a 478-carat white diamond, two large white diamonds in 2010 and a 550-carat white diamond in 2011.

The latest find

This latest rough white diamond recovered from the Letseng Mine in Lesotho was given an estimated price of $10 million to $15 million by Panmure Gordon analysts, which drove the company’s shares to rise by more than 7% and become one of London Stock Exchange’s top gainers last Tuesday. The diamond is a type IIa, and recovered from the mine in Lesotho at the end of last month. Since Gem Diamonds acquired a 70% stake in the mining operation in 2006, the mines have continuously recovered large gem quality white diamonds. So far, it has already unearthed 4 of the 20 largest white diamonds in the world, although their size is still dwarfed by the gem-quality Cullinan Diamond that was 3.9 inches (10 cm,) long and weighed 3,106.75 carats. It was found in the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan Diamond had been cut into nine gems, all of which are part of the British crown jewels.

Fine reputation

Clifford Elphick, the Chief Executive of Gem Diamonds said in the statement that the latest recovery is a testament to the reputation of the Letseng Mine as one of the most important sources of large diamonds in the world that are of exceptional quality. Earlier in the year, Gem Diamonds sold a 161.3 carat diamond for $2.4 million and a 162.02-carat stone for $11.1 million, both of which came from Letseng Mine. Gem Diamonds, which reportedly had a revenue of $212.8 million (2013) is currently developing another mine in Botswana.

Image credit: Rough cullinan diamond taken by Unknown under Public Domain.

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