A 3-billion-year-old diamond the size of a tennis ball, the largest discovered in over a century could sell for more than 70 million dollars, international auction house, Sotheby said on Wednesday.
The auction house plans to offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on June 29.
The diamond was unearthed in November in Botswana at a mine owned by Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corporation.
It measured 1,109 carat, the second-largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered.
Its name means “our light” in the Botswana Tswana language of Southern Africa.
The auctioneer said the rough gemstone “of exceptional transparency” could yield the largest top-quality diamond ever cut and polished.
David Bennett, the Chairman of Sotheby’s jewelry division, called the discovery “the find of a lifetime” and the auction unprecedented.’’
“Not only is it rough superlative in size and quality, but no rough even remotely of this scale has ever been offered before at a public auction,” Bennett said.
The Royal Collection Trust, which oversees British royal treasures said the largest gem-quality diamond ever found was the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond unearthed in South Africa in 1905.
It was cut into nine pieces that formed part of the UK Crown Jewels.
The Lesedi la Rona could smash the record price for a diamond of 48.5 million dollars paid at a Geneva sale in 2015 for the 12.03-carat polished “Blue Moon” diamond.
Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau picked it up as a gift for his 7-year-old daughter.
The Lesedi la Rona diamond would be on public display at Sotheby’s in New York on Saturday and at the auctioneer’s London showrooms between June 18 and June 28.