BELGIUM: The world's biggest diamond to be found in 13 years, the "Lesotho Promise", sold for more than 12 million US Dollars

Record ID: 830631

  • Title: BELGIUM: The world's biggest diamond to be found in 13 years, the "Lesotho Promise", sold for more than 12 million US Dollars
  • Date: 14th October 2006
  • Summary: JOURNALISTS PHOTOGRAPHING DIAMOND AND MODELS
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA6S9J1ROM09IALVBXMNIXK2717
  • Story Text: The world's biggest diamond to be found in 13 years, the "Lesotho Promise", was sold for more than 12 million US Dollars on Monday (October 9) and is expected to fetch more than 20 million US Dollars once it is cut up.
    "The tender has been won by the South African Diamond Corporation and the bid was 12 million 360 thousand US dollars," said Dr. Mamphono Kahketla, Minister Of Natural Resources for Lesotho.
    The 603-carat diamond, named after the country where it was found, went under the hammer at the Antwerp Diamond Centre and was sold to the South African Diamond Corporation, owner of luxury jewellers Graff.
    The 10th largest white diamond ever to be found, will be cut into a large heart-shaped diamond and several smaller stones which will then be sold.
    "We tend to think that we are going to have a large heart shape coming out of this stone, plus numerous other large stones and of course smaller satellite stones. The largest stone, we don't yet know the outcome, but we estimate it is going to be a historical stone," said Yves Alexis, Sales Manager of the South African Diamond Corporation.
    Johnny Kneller from the South African Diamond Corporation said that once it was cut up, he expected to sell the stones for a third more than the auction price.
    "What we are going to do now is we are going to cut the diamond into pieces. We have to scan the stone for about 3 months, that will take a long long time to see what is exactly inside and then we try to get the best possible certificate and the best possible diamonds, so you can't say exactly the retail price but we hope it is going to be over 20 million," said Kneller.
    Diamonds, an iconic status symbol famously described in a song sung by Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" as a girl's best friend, have become enormously popular in recent years, especially as women have become wealthier.
    The biggest rough diamond ever found was the Cullinan at 3,106 carats, while the second largest, the Excelsior, was 995 carats. Both were found in South Africa.
    The Lesotho diamond was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine high in the mountains of the tiny nation which is surrounded by South Africa, by a woman who was sorting through the rocks.
    "The diamond sorters, a black woman, went into the room and put her hands into the glove box and she opened up the compartment and this jewel that you see over there fell out in front of her. As reported to me, she started screaming and the rest of the staff thought she had been electrocuted and they ran into there to see if she was okay to be confronted with the Lesotho Promise," said Clifford Elphick, CEO Gem Diamond Mining, the company which found the actual stone. ENDS
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