It is said that diamonds are forever, and in our world this precious stone can mean a lot of things from a way to express your love to a souvenir of a colonial past embedded in a crown .
In a stunning find, the world’s second largest diamond has been found in Botswana’s Karowe mines, and it is a magnificent 1,111 carat stone called the Ila Karowe.
It is the largest diamond found in more in a century but the largest ever remains the 3106-carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa, in 1905.
The Cullinan was cut into many polished diamonds, and the two biggest diamonds adorn UK’s crown jewels, much like the Kohinoor .
The CEO of Lucara Diamond company, which has found the spectacular jewel said, “This historic diamond recovery puts Lucara and the Karowe mine amongst a select number of truly exceptional diamond producers. The significance of the recovery of a gem quality stone larger than 1,000 carats, the largest for more than a century and the continued recovery of high quality stones from the south lobe, cannot be overstated.”
That’s not all, two more diamonds one that was 813 carats and another 374 carat stone were also discovered in the same week, as reported by BBC .
Diamonds from Africa had been tainted because of exploitation by various factions to funding civil wars across African nations for more than a decade . The flow of blood diamonds into the market was finally stemmed by the Kimberly process signed in 2000.
In a continent marred by political instability and a trade plagued by the phenomenon of conflict diamonds for a long time, this once in a lifetime discovery might bring a change of fortunes.
