Lucas Ntsipe, assistant general manager at Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana, delivered surprising news about a 2,492-carat diamond. He received a call on Monday morning, August 19, from an engineer, and initially doubted the claim. “I said: ‘You are crazy and you are not telling me the truth. Maybe it’s a broken bottle’,” Ntsipe told the Financial Times.
Lucara, a Canada-based company, confirmed the discovery in a press release on August 20 and shared the news with Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi. The diamond, measuring 11 cm by 6 cm by 6.5 cm, is reportedly too large for Botswana’s Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to handle, leaving its grading location uncertain.
Lucara invested $17 million in X-ray transmission technology, which helped identify the diamond before it was crushed. Sources suggest the diamond’s value could range between $40 million and $60 million.
