Lucara sells world’s second-largest diamond for $53 million

Valentina Ruiz Leotaud | September 26, 2017 | 9:34 am Base Metals Africa Canada Europe Diamond Platinum

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The now historic 1,109-carat “Lesedi La Rona,” which means “our light” in the Tswana language spoken in Botswana. (Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond.)

The tennis ball-sized Lesedi La Rona rough diamond that Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC) unearthed two years ago at its Karowe mine in Botswana was sold this week for $53 million.

The buyer, London-based Graff Diamonds, paid nearly $47,777 per carat.

“The stone will tell us its story. It will dictate how it wants to be cut, and we will take the utmost care to respect its exceptional properties,” said the gem’s new custodian, Laurence Graff, in a press release.

On the other hand, Lucara CEO William Lamb stated that Graff paid a fair price for the 1,109-carat diamond, whose discovery marked a defining moment for the Vancouver-based company.

Such finding, he said, “solidified the amazing potential and rareness of the diamonds recovered at the Karowe mine. We took our time to find a buyer who would take the diamond through its next stage of evolution.”

2 Comments

Altaf

September 27, 2017 at 9:07 am

In the last Southby auction where Lucara was expecting 70 million, the highest offer was 61 million and it went unsold. Now they sold it for 53 million.
Though I feel sorry for Lucara, I feel happy for the gemstone itself. It is finally in very good hands. Graf is capable of creating unheard of diamonds from it.
Will keep looking for news about it.