1,109-carat stone can’t be sold as a diamond
TORONTO: In the mysterious world of diamond mining, it turns out that some stones are too big to sell. Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corp will have to cut its tennis ball-sized rough diamond to find a buyer, industry insiders say, following Sotheby’s failed auction for the world’s largest uncut stone last summer. It’s not the ending that William Lamb wanted for his 1,109-carat stone, named “Lesedi La Rona”, or “Our Light” in the national language of Botswana where it was mined. “It’s only the second stone recovered in the history of humanity over 1,000 carats. Why would you want to polish it?,” said Lucara’s chief executive. “The stone in the rough form contains untold potential...As soon as you polish it into one solution, everything else is gone.” Lamb had gambled that ultra-rich collectors, who buy and sell precious art works for record-breaking sums at auction, would do the same with a diamond in the raw. The bidding for the 2.5 to 3 bn year old stone stalled at $61 mn, short of the $70 mn reserve.