World's most expensive rough diamond sells for $63 mln
Baku, May 10, AZERTAC
Lucara Diamond Corp. sold an 813-carat jewel for $63 million, making it the most expensive rough gem on record and raising the prospects for the sale of the Lesedi la Rona, the world’s second-biggest such stone that was unearthed last year, BBC said.
The sale of The Constellation was worth $77,649 a carat and Lucara will retain a 10 percent interest in the net profit received in the polished products, the Vancouver-based company said in a statement Monday. The stone was bought by Nemesis International DMCC, a Dubai-based rough-diamond trading company.
Both diamonds were recovered from Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana, which is gaining a reputation for producing the world’s biggest and best stones. The 1,109-carat Lesedi la Rona, just smaller than a tennis ball, was the largest diamond discovery for more than 100 years and the stone is second in size only to the Cullinan, cut into the Great Star of Africa gem in the British Crown jewels.
“This is a great result for Lucara and should only add to the fevered expectations around the auction of Lesedi la Rona,” said Edward Sterck, a London-based analyst at BMO Capital Markets Ltd. “The $63 million price achieved is above our expectations.”
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