Where Next for the 2,492-ct Diamond?
August 29, 24
"There's nobody in living memory that has ever seen or held a stone of this size."
William Lamb, CEO of Lucara, is beyond excited as he tells me about the 2,492-carat diamond recovered last week from the company's Karowe mine, in Botswana.
There's only ever been one diamond bigger - the Cullinan Diamond from 1905, which was cut into over 100 stones, the largest of which form part of the British Crown Jewels.
News of the historic Karowe recovery reached him after a WhatsApp message early on 19 August from managing director Naseem Lahri that simply read: "Can you call me please?"
He was worried it wouldn't be good news, until she told him they'd recovered "something special".
"I must be the only diamond CEO alive who has had this call twice," he says. "The first was in November 2015, when our chief operating officer phoned me at 2.30am.
"That was when they recovered the Lesedi La Rona and we were the first company in 100 years to recover a stone over 1,000 carats.
The 1,109-cts Lesedi La Rona (Our Light in the Tswana language) was big, but it could have been even bigger.
Another 374-ct stone, also recovered, had broken off, says Lamb, as he points to two breakage planes on a replica. They believe the original stone could have been over 2,000-cts.
The company's Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray Transmission technology is now capable of identifying stones of up to 5,000 carats before they reach the crusher.
Since installing XRT technology, Lucara has gone on to recover the 1,758-carat Sewelo in April 2019 (acquired by Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed sum), a 1,174-carat diamond in June 2021, a 1,080.1-carat diamond in August 2023 and now the as yet unnamed 2,492-carat stone.
Lamb has yet to see or hold the latest recovery - he'll be in Botswana next week - but the question now is what next?
"I think the key message here is that Lucara will work in collaboration with the Government of Botswana to identify where the maximum value will be added for the stone both financially and as intangibles, for what this means to the people of Botswana," he says.
Technically the stone falls within the 10-year agreement with HB, the Antwerp-based diamond cutting and technology company that handles all of Lucara's +10.8-cts stones.
But the government has the power to exempt "legacy stones" worth over $10m from that deal. "There is no defined path forward," says Lamb.
"We going to take our time, we've got a lot of lessons that we learned from the Sewelo, from the Lesedi, etc.
"The government is very aware of those and we will meet with the government to discuss.
"It is so important for Botswana.It's so important for the diamond industry and we need to work with the government, that is obviously very connected to the revenues that Botswana generates from its diamonds.
"I think everybody thinks that the stone should be polished immediately and see what it generates, but no, this will take time in terms of discussions and figuring out the best path, because we don't want to rush it, not with a stone of this calibre."
Initial meetings with the government will probably take place in a couple of weeks, he says, but detailed discussions are likely to be delayed by campaigning ahead of Botswana's elections in October.
"How do we showcase the diamond industry, how do we showcase the natural diamond industry with the stone?" asks Lamb.
"That's not something that you can come up with in a one-hour sit down with the government."
Before that Lamb will travel to Botswana next week, to see and hold the stone for himself.
Have a fabulous weekend.