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1,305-Carat Diamond Recovered from Mine in Botswana
The yet-to-be named stone is the 10th diamond weighing more than 1,000 carats to come out of Lucara’s Karowe mine.
Diamond mining company Lucara announced this week that it has recovered this completely intact white diamond weighing 1,305.4 carats from the Karowe mine in Botswana. (Photo courtesy of Lucara Diamond Corp.)
Vancouver, British Columbia—Lucara Diamond Corp. announced it has recovered a diamond weighing 1,305.4 carats from its Karowe diamond mine in Botswana.
The stone is categorized as white and is unbroken, the miner said, and measures 79.9 mm x 34.1 mm x 51.9 mm.
The huge rough diamond was detected by the Mega Diamond Recovery (MDR) X-ray Transmission (XRT) machines, which Lucara said have been instrumental in preserving and recovering large gem-quality diamonds.
The stone was found while processing a blend of open-pit material and previously mined, unprocessed stockpiled ore.
As a result, Lucara said it cannot conclusively determine whether the diamond originated from the site’s open-pit mine or from run-of-mine stockpiled material.
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The stone is categorized as white and is unbroken, the miner said, and measures 79.9 mm x 34.1 mm x 51.9 mm.
The huge rough diamond was detected by the Mega Diamond Recovery (MDR) X-ray Transmission (XRT) machines, which Lucara said have been instrumental in preserving and recovering large gem-quality diamonds.
The stone was found while processing a blend of open-pit material and previously mined, unprocessed stockpiled ore.
As a result, Lucara said it cannot conclusively determine whether the diamond originated from the site’s open-pit mine or from run-of-mine stockpiled material.
The 1,305-carat stone is the 10th diamond weighing more than 1,000 carats that the miner has recovered since mining began at Karowe in 2012.
It is the only diamond mine in the world to have yielded 10 diamonds exceeding 1,000 carats, according to Lucara.
Among them have been the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona in 2015 and the 1,080-carat Eva Star in 2023, as well as the 2,488-carat Motswedi—the largest diamond discovered in more than a century—and the 1,094-carat Seriti, which were recovered within a month of each other in 2024.
The 1,305-carat diamond has not been named, a company spokesperson confirmed to National Jeweler.
The recent discovery reinforces Karowe as “the world’s most prolific source of exceptionally large, high-value diamonds,” Lucara said.
“The recovery of our 10th diamond exceeding 1,000 carats is another extraordinary milestone for Karowe and further demonstrates the singular nature of this world-class orebody,” President and CEO William Lamb said.
“No diamond mine in history has consistently produced diamonds of this magnitude, and Karowe continues to set itself apart on the global stage.”
He added that finding diamonds of this size reinforces the company’s belief in the “exceptional” value potential of the mine and the continued development of the Karowe Underground Project (UGP).
Lucara is the process of transitioning from open pit to underground mining, with the aim of accessing the highest value portion of the Karowe orebody and extending the life of the mine.
Underground development ore from the UGP is scheduled to begin offsetting the mine’s reliance on stockpiles in 2027.
Full-scale underground production is planned for the first half of 2028.
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