122-ct Diamond Recovered at Letseng
March 06, 23
(IDEX Online) - Gem Diamonds yesterday recovered a 122-carat D color Type II white diamond at its Letseng mine, in Lesotho.
It's the first +100-ct diamond of the year at the highest average dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.
Recoveries of large diamonds last year were below average - four +100-cts compared with an average since 2008 of eight per year, which was a factor in the British miner's a six per cent dip in its full-year revenue for 2022, down to $188.6m.
The highest price for a Letseng diamond last year was $34,170 per carat for a 42.98- carat white diamond that sold for $1,469,000. Three other diamonds sold for over $1m during the year.
Gem Diamonds, which owns 70 per cent of the Letseng mine, in the process of selling its 100 per cent share in its other mine, Ghaghoo, in Botswana, which has been mothballed since 2019, to Botswana-based Okwa Diamonds, owned by Vast Resources.
Pic courtesy Gem Diamonds