Botswana Unveils Massive 2,492-Carat Diamond, Second Largest in the World

A colossal 2,492-carat diamond, the second largest ever discovered, has been unearthed in Botswana, Lucara Diamond Corp. announced on Thursday. The diamond was found at the Karowe Diamond Mine in northeastern Botswana using advanced x-ray detection technology.

Lucara has not yet provided a valuation for the diamond or details about its quality. However, it is noted that this diamond is surpassed in size only by the 3,016-carat Cullinan Diamond, discovered in South Africa in 1905.

“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” said Lucara President William Lamb. The company released images showing the diamond as large as a human hand.

This discovery marks one of the largest rough diamonds ever found, identified through Lucara’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology, which was installed in 2017 to help detect and preserve large, high-value diamonds.

Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi is scheduled to view the diamond later on Thursday. The government has confirmed that it is the second largest diamond in the world.

Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe’s largest online diamond jeweler, 77 Diamonds, highlighted the significance of this find. “This discovery is largely thanks to newer technology that allows larger diamonds to be extracted from the ground without breaking into pieces. So we will likely see more where this came from,” he said.

Botswana, one of the world’s top diamond producers, relies heavily on its diamond industry, which accounts for 30 percent of its GDP and 80 percent of its exports. Prior to this discovery, the largest diamond found in Botswana was a 1,758-carat stone named Sewelo, also discovered by Lucara in 2019. In 2021, Lucara unearthed a 1,174-carat diamond using the same x-ray technology.