A 357-carat white diamond recovered at the Letšeng mine in July has sold for $19.3 million.
The stone achieved a top price at tender in Antwerp last week, “despite current market conditions, providing further evidence of the price resilience of Letšeng’s large top-quality diamonds,” said Clifford Elphick, CEO of mining company Gem Diamonds Ltd.
The 357-carat stone is one of two “remarkable” 300-plus carat diamonds produced this year by the Letšeng mine, which is located in Lesotho, a small kingdom encircled by South Africa.
The other, a 314-carat diamond, was recovered in May and sold into a partnership agreement in June.
Also churning out large diamonds of late has been the Karowe mine in Botswana, where Lucara unearthed a 336-carat diamond in August, following the recovery of three other notable diamonds: a 184-carat, a 94-carat and an 86-carat stone.
