Africa does it again. The
world’s biggest diamond was found.
A diamond was discovered recently in a mining camp in the North West province of Africa.
According to SAfm public radio the stone found was twice the
weight of the previous record-holder, the Cullinan Diamond, which weighed about
3,106 carats when found in present-day Gauteng
province in January 1905.
The Cullinan diamond was cut up in smaller pieces and is now
part of Britain’s
crown jewels.
On Monday, Brett Jolly, the manager of his mining company in
North West reported finding a large, octahedral green stone weighing about
1,6kg.
Jolly is still a bit skeptical about the diamond. He first
wants to have it analyzed by geologist to make sure it is real.
“If it was a diamond, the weight would translate into about
7000 carats, “Jolly said
His mining manager has been in the business for more than 25
years and knows a thing or two about rocks, he claims to have tried to scratch
the rock with a grinder but he did not succeed, and was of the opinion that it
was a diamond.
If it was a 7000-carat diamond it could be worth £500m-
£700m, jolly said
But the diamond had to be first sent to the minerals and
energy department not to a diamond dealer.
According to James Allan, of Allan Hochreiter if the mining
company that found the diamond didn’t have a license ,then the diamond
immediate belong to the .
Jolly said he had nothing to worry about because he had a
full property development license. He didn’t say what the property was but he
did mention it wasn’t a kimberlitic mine, but an alluvial one.
Alluvial diamonds are found in rivers and oceans as a result
of erosion from diamond deposits close to surface, while kimberlitic diamonds
found are in pipes extending deep underground.
Although not impossible, very large alluvial stones are rare
to come by. “Anything is possible but not always likely,” he said.
After because of its almost perfect shape Allan said it
would be improbable for it to be an alluvial diamond but rather a fluorite
crystal.
One of the biggest diamonds found recently was the 603-carat
Lesotho Promise, uncovered last October at the Letseng diamond mine in Lesotho.