Karowe diamond mine in Botswana has shocked the world with huge diamonds. An enormous 1,174-carat diamond was unearthed in the African country by the mining company, Lucara Diamond Corporation.
In a ceremony on Wednesday, Lucara Diamond Corp., has presented the diamond to the government. Just a few days back a huge 1,098-carat precious stone was discovered in Botswana by a diamond firm, Debswana. It was 77mm long, 55mm wide and 33mm thick diamond was unearthed in the same Karowe diamond mine.
A member of the Botswana cabinet holds a 1,174-carat diamond in Gaborone, Botswana that Lucara Diamonds Corp. unearthed.
It is to be remembered that the world’s second-largest diamond ‘Lesedi La Rona’ was also found in Botswana in the year 2015. It is believed that the 1,174-carat diamond was part of a larger diamond with an estimated weight of more than 2000 carats.
Karowe holds the world record for unearthing diamonds of over 1,000 carats 3 times. In general, diamonds constitutes less than one carat.
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Billions of years old natural diamonds formed deep in the Earth and some scientists suggest that there are vast quantities of gem-quality stone hundreds of kilometres deep inside. It is believed that that the deepest hole ever drilled is about 12 kilometres.
Most diamonds are found within igneous rocks called Kimberlite but only a small percentage of all known Kimberlite deposits contain diamonds.
Large natural diamonds often get destroyed during the mining process because of ore blasting with explosives. Also, some are crushed into fragments in the search process for diamonds.
But now-a-days the companies have come up with new technologies that process with the aid of X-ray ore-sorting technology, specifically targeted for mega diamond recovery.
The latest mega diamond from the Karowe mine was recovered using these newer techniques. It also indicates that more of these enormous stones will be discovered in the future. Advances in diamond mining techniques, coupled with the inherent rarity of mega diamonds, is a boon for Botswana, where diamonds constitute a significant portion of the country’s GDP.