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374ct. Diamond Fragment Fetches $17.5M
May 14, 2017 6:46 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corporation has sold a stone that was originally part of the second-largest rough diamond in history for $17.5 million.
The 373.72-carat rough, which broke off the Lesedi La Rona diamond during the
production process, fetched $46,935 per carat at Lucara’s exceptional-stone
tender, the company reported last week. As a whole, the sale event brought in
$54.8 million from 15 rough diamonds totaling 1,765.72 carats, at an average
price of $31,010 per carat.
The Lesedi La Rona, discovered at Lucara’s Karowe mine in
Botswana in November 2015, weighs 1,109 carats, but would
have been closer to 1,500 carats had it not broken into two pieces, Lucara CEO
William Lamb said in May last year.
The larger stone, minus the 373.72-carat fragment, failed to
sell at a Sotheby’s auction last June and is still in Lucara’s inventory. The
company hopes to sell it in the first half of this year, Lamb told Rapaport
News in December.
Other items that found buyers at the exceptional-stone
tender included seven diamonds that netted more than $2 million each, and a
further three that sold for more than $4 million each. These included a
182.47-carat rough, which garnered $6.3 million, or $34,526 per carat.
“Karowe continues to deliver strong, consistent results from
its regular and exceptional tenders, demonstrating the robust nature of the
ore body and the predictable contribution from large, high-value diamonds,” Lamb
said last week.
Image: Donald Woodrow
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Tags:
Botswana, exceptional-stone tender, Karowe mine, large diamonds, Lesedi La Rona, lucara, Lucara Diamond Corp, mining, Rapaport News, rough diamond, William Lamb
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