The largest polished round diamond?
Apparently a 478 carat diamond was just recently unearthed in Africa. The experts are saying that once polished, it could become the world’s largest polished round diamond.
According to Foxnews…
A huge gemstone that could become the world’s largest polished round diamond has been found at the Letseng Mine, owned by Gem Diamonds, in Lesotho, southern Africa. The diamond weighs 478 carats and is the twentieth largest ever found. Gem Diamonds says that initial examination suggests that it has a flawless centre and could produce a 150-carat round-cut white diamond worth tens of millions of pounds. “Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record-breaking polished stone of the very best colour and clarity,” the company’s Chief Executive Clifford Elphick said in a statement.
This makes me think back to a post I wrote a while ago about the increasing quality of man-made diamonds. In it, I talked about how diamonds are now being “grown” and since they are being made the same way that diamonds are made in nature (just on a much quicker timeline) even a lot of diamond experts can’t tell them apart from the “real” ones.
I can’t help but wonder if we won’t be seeing more record-breaking diamonds appearing in the future? And if the experts can’t distinguish the genuine from the “grown” ones – it just seems like there could be some interesting things ahead for the diamond industry.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought the same thing when I first heard that news story. Could it be lab-grown? I doubt it, but then again…
if it really doesn’t take that long to grow a monster diamond – you gotta think that someone is going to be trying to pull something like that eventually…