An 89-carat yellow diamond was recovered from Lesotho’s Mothae mine in Africa recently. The valuable stone costs £10million approximately amounting to Rs 90 crores. The mining company Lucapa unearthed the diamond from an unexplored area.
The Sun quotes Stephen Wetherall, owner of mining firm Lucapa, as saying, “Having recently recovered a 25-carat yellow diamond from the previously untested neck zone, we are tremendously encouraged that this 89-carat diamond was recovered from the south-east zone. This is an area of the Mothae kimberlite pipe where there’s been very limited historical testing.”
Lucapa owns 70 per cent of the gem while the rest goes to Lesotho government. Lesotho gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The Letseng mine is known for the size and quality of the diamonds found there. It fetches the highest average selling price in the world.
In January earlier this year, Gem Diamonds Ltd. found 910-carat stone, about the size of two golf balls, at its Letseng mine. It was a D colour Type IIa diamond with few or no nitrogen atoms making it one of the most expensive stones found. The diamond is the fifth-biggest ever found.
South Africa is known for its diamond mines and has excavated many such precious stones in the past. In 1905, Sir Thomas Cullinan found the largest rough diamond, of a total of 3,106-carats. Two stones were made from it, i.e. Cullinan I and Cullinan II and are now among the British Crown Jewels.
