Toronto: Lucara recently announced the recovery of a 1,080.1 carat diamond. It’s the fourth +1,000-ct stone from Karowe, in Botswana, since the mine opened in 2012. The Type IIa top white gem quality diamond measures 82.2m x 42.8m x 34.2mm and was recovered from direct milling of ore sourced from the mine’s South Lobe.

In November 2015, a 1,109-carat stone  – the world’s largest gem-quality rough diamond found in more than a century – was recovered from Karowe.  It was bought in November 2017 by Graff Diamonds for $53m and cut into the 302.37 carat Graff Lesedi La Rona and 66 satellite stones.

In April 2019, Lucara recovered the 1,758-carat Sewelo diamond – the world’s third biggest rough diamond ever. It was bought in January 2020 by Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed sum.

And in June 2021 a 1,174.76 carat clivage gem was recovered. The company said at the time that it could have been part of an even larger +2,000-ct stone.

Eira Thomas, CEO of the Canadian miner, said the company was “extremely pleased” to be reporting the recovery of another large, high-quality gem, and was hopeful its underground expansion plan (costing $683m) would yield even more.

She said, “As we progress mining deeper in the open pit and transition to underground mining, exclusively in the South Lobe, the preponderance of large, high value stones is increasing, consistent with the resource model and underpins the strong economic rationale for investing in the underground expansion that will extend the mine-life out to at least 2040.”