In Africa, found the largest diamond in the last 110 years

The Canadian company Lucara Diamonds, engaged in diamond mining, published on its official website Press release , in which she made public the details of the largest diamond found in 110 years. The size of the stone is really impressive: 65 x 65 x 40 millimeters, and even more surprised experts is the fact that the stone belongs to the rarest variety of diamonds of category IIa, considered the highest. Only 2% of all diamonds found in the world are classified in this category.

A surprising 1111-carat stone (about 222 grams) was discovered in a mine located on the territory of the Republic of Botswana in South Africa. Surprisingly, the previous diamond record holder, named "Cullinan," was also found on the territory of this continent in 1905. His record still remains unbeaten, it is not surprising, because the mass of the stone was 3106 carats (621 grams). True Cullinan is divided into many parts, some of which was used to create jewelry for the royal family of Great Britain.

The detected diamond, of course, will also be fragmented into smaller stones, since it does not even fit into a special device for laser analysis, and specialists had to work with it in unconventional ways. It is difficult to imagine how much this stone or its derivatives can cost. However, one can recall the stone "The Legacy of Winston", whose mass was equal to 102 carats, left in 2013 from Christie's auction. To this day, it is considered the largest auctioned diamond, and the buyer paid $ 26.7 million for it.

Let us remind you that diamonds have the highest hardness among all minerals, as well as high thermal conductivity, refractive index and dispersion. On the origin of diamonds there is still no exact scientific evidence. There are many hypotheses, but most often it is mentioned that carbon atoms under high pressure (about 50,000 atmospheres) and at great depth (over 200 kilometers) form a crystal lattice, which becomes a diamond. After that, the resulting stones are brought to the surface by volcanic magma, where they are discovered after some time by people.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/eto-interesno/v-afrike-najden-samyj-krupnyj-almaz-za-poslednie-110-let.html.