(Ecofin Agency) - “Lesedi La Rona”, the second biggest diamond ever discovered was sold for $53 million (€44.7 million). This was announced Monday by Lucara Diamond Corp, the firm that found the stone in November 2015 at its Karowe mine, in Botswana.

Regarding how it will be cut, Laurence Graff, founder of Graff Diamonds, company that bought the stone which is the size of a tennis ball, declared: “The stone will tell us its story, it will dictate how it wants to be cut, and we will take the utmost care to respect its exceptional properties”.

“We took our time to find a buyer who would take the diamond through its next stage of evolution. The price paid is also an improvement on the highest bid received at the Sotheby’s auction in June 2016,” said William Lamb, CEO of Lucara.

Lesedi La Rona, which means “our light” in the local Tswana language is the biggest diamond ever discovered at the Karowe mine, which is known to regularly deliver exceptionally rare and big stones. It is the second most important discovery in history after the “Cullinan”, a 3,106ct stone found in South Africa, in 1905. 

Louis-Nino Kansoun