At an event on August 22nd, Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masis revealed the biggest diamond discovered in over a century that had been found in a mine.
According to Botswanan authorities, the massive 2,492-carat diamond is reportedly the second-largest gem ever found in a mine. It is also the largest diamond, about the size of a clenched fist, discovered in 1905.
The formation of diamonds is a result of the intense pressure and compression of carbon atoms in an underground mine. Carbon atoms come into contact with multiple atoms at extremely high temperatures (around 3000 degrees) and pressures of almost 50,000 times that of Earth’s surface. The carbon atoms combine with four other atoms to form diamonds. According to gemologists, the majority of diamonds are 1 billion years old, and few are older than 3 billion.
President Masisi was among the first to hold the 1lb diamond, which has not been named yet. He said it was overwhelming and that he was lucky to have seen it.
Officials said it was too soon to determine the stone’s worth or how it would be sold. In 2016, a smaller diamond from the same mine sold for $63 million.
At that weight, it would surpass the Cullinan Diamond, found in South Africa in 1905, as the second-biggest diamond ever extracted from a mine and the biggest stone found in almost 120 years. The renowned Cullinan diamond (3,106 carats) was cut up, and the small jewels were placed in the British Crown Jewels.
A larger black diamond, thought to have been a meteorite fragment, was unearthed in Brazil at the end of the 1800s.
The frequency of diamonds formed on Earth is lower than that of diamonds formed outside of our planet. Some meteorites consist of diamonds with as few as 2,000 carbon atoms, and some of these diamonds originated in stars prior to the birth of our Solar System.
Lately, all of the world’s largest diamonds have been discovered in Botswana, making it the second-biggest source of natural diamonds, behind Russia. Four more diamonds weighing more than 1,000 carats have been mined within the past ten years.
