A massive 2 492-carat diamond – the second largest in the world – has been discovered in Botswana, the Canadian mining company that found the stone announced on Thursday.

The diamond was discovered in the Karowe Diamond Mine in northeastern Botswana using x-ray detection technology, Lucara Diamond Corp. said in a statement.

‘One of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed’

Lucara did not give a value for the find or mention its quality, but in terms of carats, the stone is second only to the 3 016.75-carat Cullinan Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905.

“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2 492-carat diamond,” Lucara president William Lamb said in the statement.

Pictures released by the company show the diamond is as large as the palm of a hand.

This find was “one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed” and was detected using the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology installed in 2017 to identify and preserve large, high-value diamonds, the statement said.

Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi was due to view the massive stone later on Thursday. His government said it was the second biggest in the world.

Largest producer

Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe’s largest online diamond jeweller, 77 Diamonds, confirmed it was the largest rough diamond to be unearthed since the Cullinan Diamond, parts of which adorn Britain’s crown jewels.

“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 is one of the world’s largest producers of diamonds, its main source of income, accounting for 30 percent of GDP and 80 percent of its exports.

Before the find was announced on Thursday, the largest diamond discovered in Botswana was a 1 758-carat stone mined by Lucara at the Karowe mine in 2019 and named Sewelo.

Lucara found a 1 174-carat diamond stone in Botswana in 2021 using the same x-ray technology.

By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse