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Gem Diamonds, owner of 70% of the Letšeng mine in Lesotho, has announced that it has found a large diamond, which would be the fifth largest diamond ever found. The piece, of 910 carats, would have an estimated value of 40 million dollars.

The mine was acquired in 2006 (shared with the Government of Lesotho), and since then it has been offering important diamonds, such as those found in June and July of last year; although without a doubt, the most important one to date was the Promise Diamond of Lesotho, of 603 carats. This site is famous for high quality diamonds in terms of color, and the size of the stones that have been found.

 The new diamond discovered not only stands out for its size, but also for its quality: it is 'D' in color, and has been classified as type IIa, to which only 1-2% of the world's diamonds belong.

A 04.73 carat D color Type IIa diamond, left, and a 151.52 carat Type I yellow diamond. Gem Diamonds Ltd. discovered in Lesotho Mine last year.

Source:: Gem Diamonds Ltd.

Gem Diamonds Ltd. has discovered two huge diamonds, each bigger than 100 carats, at its Lesotho mine in southern Africa.

It unearthed the 117 carat and 110 carat D color Type IIa diamonds at the Letseng mine, Gem said in a statement on Monday. Type IIa diamonds contain very little or no nitrogen atoms and are the most expensive stones.

The company’s stock rose as much as 8.2 percent in London trading.

It’s a good start to the year following Gem’s discovery of at least seven stones bigger than 100 carats in 2017 and five the year before. It recovered a dozen diamonds bigger than 100 carats in 2015.

Still, recent finds don’t compare with the largest at Letseng, renowned for the quality and size of its stones. Gem sold a 357-carat stone for $19.3 million in 2015 and in 2006 found the 603-carat Lesotho Promise.