Lesotho Diamond Weighs More Than a Baseball<br />15, 2018<br />LONDON — High in the mountains of a small southern African kingdom, miners have unearthed one of the largest diamonds<br />ever found, a glittering giant weighing 910 carats, or 6.4 ounces, and probably worth tens of millions of dollars.<br />The stone, found in the Letseng mine in Lesotho, is the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found, and the largest in Lesotho’s history.<br />The previous largest find in Lesotho, the 603-carat Lesotho Promise diamond, sold for $12.4 million in 2006,<br />and diamond prices have increased significantly since then.<br />Gem Diamonds, the London-based company that owns a majority stake in the mine and<br />that announced the find on Monday, described the diamond as being of extremely high quality.<br />Elizabeth Taylor’s famous collection of hefty jewels included a 33-carat diamond ring<br />that sold at auction for $8.8 million in 2011, and a 69-carat diamond, both bought for her by Richard Burton in the late 1960s.<br />How much the rough stone will fetch at auction remains to be seen, and it will depend in part on any imperfections<br />that limit the size of the cut and polished stones it can be fashioned into.
