Botswana has unearthed another record-breaking precious stone.
The 1,174-carat diamond comes less than a month after a 1,098-carat gemstone was unearthed in the country.
The massive gem was discovered on June 12 by the Canadian Diamond firm Lucara and presented to the country’s cabinet in Gaborone on Wednesday.
“This is history in the making, for us and Botswana as well,” the company’s managing director, Naseem Lahri.
On June 1, a diamond weighing in at 1,098 carats was unearthed at the Jwaneng by a diamond firm.
Botswana is Africa’s biggest producer of diamonds.
The country’s minerals minister, Lefoko Moagi, said the discovery of the stone could not have come at a better time after-sales slumped dramatically during the pandemic.
Production at Debswana plummeted by 29% in 2020 to 16.6 million carats and sales decreased by 30% to $2.1 billion. In 2020, the Jwaneng mine produced 7.5 million carats of the group’s 2020 yield of 25.1 million carats.
The Debswana Diamond is a partnership between De Beers and the government of Botswana, one of only five rocks over 1,000 carats ever unearthed.
Debswana did not reveal whether the rock will be sold by De Beers or through state-owned trader Okavango Diamond Co. Okavango also holds the right to buy Debswana stones.
In 2015, the world’s second-largest diamond was also found in Botswana.
The largest diamond ever discovered was found in South Africa in 1905.
The diamond was 3,106 carats. The diamond was presented to King Edward VII by the Transvaal Government in 1907 as a symbolic gesture to repair the fractured relationship between Britain and South Africa following the Boer War.
