
You won't believe how much the giant stone is worth, say officials from Australian mining company Lucapa.
It may take the likes of James Bond himself to protect this flawless 404-carat diamond recently discovered in Angola. According to a report from ABC, the Lucapa Diamond Company, based in Perth, Australia has just discovered one of the biggest diamonds seen in recent history. The diamond is 404 carats and is worth an estimated $20 million or more.
The diamond was discovered at the Lulo Diamond Project in Angola’s northeastern province of Lunda Norte. It has taken the record of biggest diamond ever found within the country’s borders. The chairman of Lucapa, Miles Kennedy, said the discovery was a huge achievement.
“When we first looked at the property, 3,000 square kilometers of untouched ground, 700 kilometers inland from the coast, you are talking about a very, very remote area,” he said.
In addition to being the biggest diamond ever unearthed in Angola, the stone is also the largest diamond ever discovered by an Australian miner. Kennedy called the diamond ‘spectacular,’ and said that the stone was of excellent quality.
The diamond has caused valuation experts to scratch their heads, as it really is a one-of-a-kind gem. “We’re not used to valuing 400-carat diamonds, but if we look at other diamonds slightly less weight than this, you’re looking in the order of $20 million,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy has been working with diamonds for decades. He set up the Ellendale diamond mine in Australia’s northwestern Kimberley region in the 1990’s. After finding success on his home continent, Kennedy set up the Lucapa company by moving his mining and geology team to Angola. In fourteen years of digging in Australia, Kennedy never found a diamond larger than 10.8 carats. A diamond of this size is considered a “special diamond,” and since moving to Angola, the company has discovered more than 100 of them. He expects the sale of the massive stone to provide his company with enough cash to continue expanding and searching for more in the near future.
The diamond is currently the third largest diamond ever discovered in the world, coming in right after the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond which was dug out of a mine in South Africa in 1905. A 1,111-carat diamond was also discovered in a Botswana mine last year by the company Lucara Diamond.
The stone measures about seven centers in diameter, or 2.75 inches. According to Endiama, Angola’s national diamond company, “It was a significant day for our country, our diamond industry and for the Lulo diamond project.”
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