USA TODAY International Edition
910-carat diamond a doozy of a Valentine
Feb. 14 is prime time to buy a rock of any size
When Feb. 14 approaches each year, the thoughts of many Americans in love turn to diamonds.
Nearly 20% of 2018 Valentine’s Day gift-givers plan to spend a total of $4.7 billion on jewelry, up 9.3% from 2017, National Retail Federation survey data show.
The day that might or might not be named for a saint named Valentine falls during the four-month period from November through February dubbed “Proposal Season” by The Knot, an online site that helps couples plan weddings. February accounted for 7% of the engagements in The Knot’s 2017 Real Weddings survey.
Sticking with decades of recent U.S. tradition, 88% of the couples surveyed for the site’s 2017 Jewelry & Engagement study opted for engagement rings with white diamonds as the center stone.
“They’re far and away the most popular,” said Shelley Brown, fashion and beauty editor for The Knot.
Here’s a story that may inspire those who plan to give a loved one a diamond (or those who hope to get one).
It’s summer now in Lesotho, a landlocked African nation of more than 1.9 million people and roughly 11,720 square miles that’s surrounded by South Africa.
Lesotho’s mining employment has declined in recent years. Yet one active strip mine, owned by London-based Gem Diamonds and Lesotho’s government, has repeatedly set the global diamond industry abuzz in recent years.
Located at an elevation of roughly 9,900 feet in the Maloti Mountains of northern Lesotho, the Letšeng mine is the world’s highest diamond mine.
In mid-January, the Letšeng mine produced a rare find: a 910-carat diamond, roughly equivalent to the size of two golf balls.
Even rarer, Gem Diamonds said the find is classified as a D-color Type II diamond, the highest color and purest quality ratings.
Rarest of all, the Letšeng mine since 2006 has produced more than 60 gems of at least 100 carats, predominantly high-value, white diamonds.
Why have so many eye-popping diamonds been found here? It’s difficult to determine with certainty, gem experts say.
But the diamonds recovered at the Letšeng mine are different, according to studies during the past two years by Evan Smith, a Gemological Institute of America research scientist, and fellow researchers at the Carnegie Institue for Science and the University of Padua.
“Those big diamonds are genetically different,” said Smith. “They really do form a population of their own.”
So, what’s the likely sale price of a high-quality, 910-carat diamond?
Gem Diamonds declined to say. And several major diamond companies in the U.S. and Europe did not respond to USA TODAY messages asking the marketing question.
Michael Marty, director of diamond supply management for Blue Nile, a Seattle-based diamond jeweler, ventured that the diamond might sell for $50 million to $75 million and estimated it could be cut to produce 10 to 30 stones.