One of the Biggest Diamonds Ever Discovered in Lesotho
The fifth biggest diamond ever discovered has been unearthed in a mine in Lesotho, a small landlocked country surrounded by South Africa. The stone has a weight of 910 carats and the size of two golf balls.
The diamond is especially valuable because it belongs to a category of gems that are colourless and do not have grave impurities.
The diamond was found in the Letseng mine, which in the past has been famous for the size and quality of gems discovered there. Diamonds that come from the Lesotho mine usually sell at a high price. Since 2006 the mine has produced some remarkable diamonds, including the Lesotho Promis, a 603-carat diamond found in 2006.
The newly found diamond will now be cut into smaller stones and polished. After that, diamond traders can actually say how much the diamond is worth, probably around $40 million.
Gem, the British based company that operates the mine together with the Lesotho government, expects its shares to recover after prices fell and a new mine had to close in Botswana.
The largest diamond ever discovered is still the Cullinan, a 3,106-carat gem found near Pretoria in 1905. It was cut into several stones including the Great Star of Africa, the largest cut diamond in the world. The rest has been cut into the gems that are in the British Crown Jewels.
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Words
- British-based = its main headquarters are in the U.K.
- discover = to find for the first time
- colourless = clear, so that you can see through it
- Crown Jewels = objects that are a symbol of the British monarchy, kept in the Tower of London
- especially = above all
- gem = beautiful stone that has been cut into a special shape
- government = people who rule a country
- grave = serious, bad
- impurity = object that is not very pure; with other substances that are mixed into it
- including = also
- landlocked = country that has no coast
- mine = deep hole in the ground that people dig in order to find coal , gold and other metals or minerals
- operate = to run a company; the owner of ...
- polish = to make something smooth, bright and shiny by rubbing it
- recover = here: to go up again
- remarkable = unusual, surprising
- share = part of a company that belongs to an individual
- surrounded = all around it
- trader = person who buys and sells things
- unearth = to dig something up from the earth
- valuable = worth a lot of money
- weight = how heavy something is
- worth = how much money you can get by selling it