GIA Examines World's Second Largest Diamond
September 04, 25
(IDEX Online) - Experts at the GIA's lab in Gaborone, Botswana, have examined the 2,488-carat Motswedi diamond - the second largest in the world after the famed Cullinan Diamond (3,106 carats).
It was recovered last August by Canadian miner Lucara at its Karowe mine, in Botswana.
"This is undoubtedly a diamond of great historical importance," said Tom Moses, GIA executive vice president and chief research and laboratory officer. "I have been fortunate to examine many significant, large and very rare diamonds, but I have never seen a gem quality diamond of nearly this size."
He and his team examined the stone in great detail and said it was a transparent, gem-quality diamond, displaying a light brown color, divided into several large gem-quality "blocks" with minimal inclusions.
"Our examinations confirmed that the Motswedi is a single gem-quality crystal, type IIa diamond with no detectable nitrogen," said Dr. Wuyi Wang, GIA's vice president of research and development.
"It is the largest known single crystal diamond in existence and undoubtedly formed much deeper within the earth than the majority of diamonds."
It arrived at GIA weighing 2,488.32 carats along with 11 smaller fragments that had broken off during cleaning and examination at Karowe, weighing a total of 1.50 carats. Two larger pieces weighed 0.75 and 0.47 carat, respectively.
In February Lucara said the stone could remain unpolished, as a museum piece."
We've had discussions with three different museums across the globe who want to acquire the (Motswedi) stone," said CEO William Lamb. "They want it in the rough; they don't want to polish it."
Motswedi means a water spring or the flow of underground water that emerges to the surface offering life and vitality, in Setswana, the local language in Botswana.
Click here for more detail on the GIA examination.