The largest diamond in the world was found
At last, the world’s largest diamond had found a worthy contender. According to preliminary forecasts of experts, the weight of the new diamond champion is 1.5 kg.
Until now, the largest diamond in the world was the Cullinan diamond. This diamond was found in the British province of Transvaal (today the Republic of South Africa) in 1905. The weight of the former champion Cullinan is 3106 carats (621.2 grams). The diamond was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, who had discovered the Premier in the Transvaal three years earlier. The diamond surprises not only for its size but also for its cleanliness, the absence of mineral inclusions, cracks and bubbles.
The Cullinan diamond was presented to the reigning British monarch, King Edward VII, in 1907. It is interesting that the diamond represents a chip (about 1/3) of a larger diamond, but it has not been found until now.
The diamond was cut into 9 large stones and around 100 smaller ones by IJ Asscher and Company of Amsterdam. The Cullinan diamond decorates the forehead of the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain about a hundred years ago.
Today, the 7,000-carat (1.5 kg) diamond was found in the same country. Under armed guard, the new diamond will be delivered to Johannesburg, the capital of the Republic of South Africa, where the exact weight and size of the diamond will be determined with the help of special technical teams.
What company owns this precious find? It’s not announced yet. However, for the entire last century, the leadership in world diamond production belonged to the giant De Beers, which until now has controlled about 65% of the entire diamond market.
Today the Republic of South Africa occupies the fifth place in the extraction of rough diamonds in the world, giving place only to Australia, Botswana, Russia and Congo.
Russia is not giving up in a diamond run either. So, the Alrosa diamond mining company has a quarter of the world’s diamond mining.
A large deposit of rough diamonds was discovered in Yakutia in early August. Russian diamond giant Alrosa has discovered a large deposit of rough diamonds in Yakutia. The value of its reserves is estimated at $3.5 billion. The deposit of such an extent was last discovered in Yakutia ten years ago.
The new Verkhne-Munskoe deposit links three kimberlite pipes located 130 kilometers from Alrosa’s Udachninsky mining and processing plant. The deposit is expected to last 25 years, with a yield of 1.2 million tons to 2 million tons of stones.
In terms of geological survey, Alrosa has surpassed the best indicators of the former Soviet Union, the company announced in the April 2007 press release. Currently, for example, Alrosa is organizing the fourth exploration expedition in the northern part of the diamond province of Yakutia.
It is mentioned that Russia had become the first country in export volume of rough diamonds in 2005. In fact, the Russian Federation had occupied the first position only for the physical volume of diamonds taken from abroad. The leader in export financing had become Botswana (25% of world diamond exports). It is assumed that in 2007 Russia will increase its turnover considerably due to the opening of new diamond fields.