It is the largest diamond to have been discovered in over a century . Formed deep within the earth billions of years ago The Lesedi La Rona Diamond was discovered in Botswana by the Lucara Diamond Corporation in November 2015 .
Unearthed just 200 meters down within the Karowe open-pit mine , a mine purchased just five yearsago from DeBeers and known for producing some very large , exceptionally high-quality diamonds , and over 400,000 carats of gem-quality diamonds annually . The Lesedi La Rona Diamond is the third largest diamond ever to be found weighing 1109 carats , only the Black Sergio and Cullian are larger and to the naked eye this huge chunk of rock appears to resemble that of a tennis ball .
The name Lesedi La Rona , meaning ‘ Our Light ’ in the Tswana language spoken in Botswana , was picked from among thousands of entries submitted by Botswana citizens in a contest . Touted as “ the find of a lifetime ”, this uncut diamond which has the potential to yield a 400-carat flawless diamond one of the largest top-quality diamonds ever because of its grade D diamond rating meaning it has the be brightest , clearest and most brilliant clarity any diamond can have was placed for public auction at Sotheby ’ s London in June with an estimated price tag of $ 70m . Sadly the whopping rough diamond didn ’ t come close to the undisclosed reserve price and was withdrawn from auction when bids stalled at $ 61 million .
Some believe the decision to auction the uncut stone at a public auction a break from tradition is the reason why the stone failed to sell . Diamond sales are usually very secretive with diamonds only offered to an elite group of dealers who assess the diamonds potential and evaluate how many individual diamonds can be cut from it before it is sold on , others though believe the public auction an open-forum for buyers put bidders off after all would you want to be the lapidary to cut this stone ?
CEO William Lamb of Lucara Diamond Corporation said , “ We chose the auction route because we wanted to have access to as many ultra-high net worth individuals as possible , those people who had bought very expensive items in the past to see if diamonds would be purchased as a collectible the same as high-value art is ”
In recent years there has been an avalanche of record-breaking selling prices being achieved for rough diamonds . Only in May this year an 813 carat diamond unearthed from the same mine as the Lesedi La Rona diamond called “ The Constellation ” was sold for $ 63.1 million to Dubai based firm Nemisis International setting a new record for the highest price ever achieved for a rough diamond .
Here we take a look at the eight most expensive diamonds sold at auction around the world
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