A 910 carat (ct) diamond recovered at GEM Diamonds’ Letšeng mine in Lesotho could fetch more than $40m and help support the firm’s under-pressure balance sheet.

Shares in GEM gained 13% in early morning trade on the London Stock Exchange. On a 12-month basis, however, the company has lost a fifth of its value.

“We currently forecast Letšeng to achieve an average realised price of $2,452/ct and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $104m in 2018, which includes the recovery of large high-value diamonds normalising to historical levels,” said Edward Sterck, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets.

“If the recovery of more normal run-of-mine large diamonds normalises as expected, then the contribution from the 910ct stone could provide a tailwind to cash flow and earnings,” he added. There has been a $50m net cash outflow at GEM between June 2016 and June 2017 which has taken the company into a net debt position.

GEM announced today that the diamond – a D colour 910ct Type II A diamond – was “… believed to be” the fifth largest gem quality diamond ever recovered. “This is a landmark recovery for all of Gem Diamonds’ stakeholders, including our employees, shareholders and the Government of Lesotho, our partner in the Letšeng mine,” said Clifford Elphick, CEO of GEM Diamonds in a statement.

Quite whether GEM will get that value for the stone is questionable. Price forecasting for large, high value diamonds was complex, said Sterck. Lucara earned $53m from its 1,109ct Lesedi La Rona diamon – $10m less than it earned from a 813ct diamond recovered a year earlier owing to the former’s poorer cutting and polishing characteristics.

Sterck said one of the other problems faced by miners selling large diamonds is that there was limited cutters and polishers with balance sheets able to take on the heavy capital commitments of treating large diamonds. The market was also “… somewhat saturated given the number of large diamonds Lucara has been producing in recent years,” he said.

Commenting in the firm’s third quarter results announcement in October, Elphick said that the market was robust for large stones. “The market for Letšeng’s high-quality diamonds has remained firm over the period with the July tender achieving nearly $2,400/cts.”</s>A diamond that could be worth $40 million has been dug up in Lesotho

Workers in the Letseng mine in the African country of Lesotho found a diamond that weighs 910 carats (6.4 ounces, 180 grams). It is one of the largest in the world and it could be worth an estimated $40 million.</s>iStock/Thinkstock(LESOTHO, Africa) — A whopping 910-carat diamond was discovered in Southern Africa, one of the biggest gems ever found, the mining company that uncovered it said Monday.

The colorless diamond was extracted from the Letseng mine in Lesotho, a small nation completely surrounded by South Africa, and is believed to be the fifth largest diamond to be unearthed, said Clifford Elphick, chief executive of the Gem Diamonds, which runs the mine in partnership with the government of Lesotho.

Elphick released a statement describing the gem as an “exceptional top quality diamond.” He said the precious stone is rated D color, the top-rated color for diamonds.

The largest diamond ever excavated is the Cullinan Diamond, a 3,106.75-carat gem found in Cullinan, South Africa, in 1905. The diamond, which is also known as as the Star of Africa I, was cut and used in the British monarchy’s crown jewels.

Letseng is the same mine where the 603-carat Lesotho Promise diamond was discovered in 2006, Elphick said. The uncut Lesotho Promise diamond was auctioned off in Belgium that same year for $12.4 million.</s>A 910 carat diamond was found in the small Southern Africa nation of Lesotho, the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found, diamond miner Gem Diamonds Limited said in a statement on Monday.

“Gem Diamonds Limited is pleased to announce the recovery of an exceptional quality 910 carat, D colour Type IIa diamond from the Letseng mine in Lesotho.

“The diamond, the largest recovered from Letseng, is believed to be the fifth largest gem quality diamond ever recovered,” the company said.

Lesotho is a small, impoverished country surrounded entirely by South Africa.

A rough diamond from Botswana, believed to be the biggest uncut diamond found in a century, sold for 53 million dollars in September.

NAN reports that in November 2015,the world’s second-largest gem quality diamond has been discovered in Botswana, the Lucara Diamond firm says.

The 1,111-carat stone was recovered from its Karowe mine, about 500km (300 miles) north of the capital, Gaborone.

It is the biggest diamond to be discovered in Botswana and the largest find in more than a century.

The 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond was found in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels.

“The significance of the recovery of a gem quality stone larger than 1,000 carats, the largest for more than a century… cannot be overstated,” William Lamb, the CEO of Lucara Diamond, a Canadian diamond producer,

Lucara says two other “exceptional” white diamonds – an 813-carat stone and a 374-carat stone – were also found at the Karowe mine.

“This has been an amazing week for Lucara with the recovery of the second largest and also the sixth largest gem quality diamonds ever mined,” Lamb said.

The stone is yet to be evaluated, but commodities and mining analyst Kieron Hodgson, told AFP news agency that “the potential to be one very expensive diamond.”</s>A London-based mining company said Monday it has recovered a huge diamond from a Lesotho mine in which it is a majority owner. Gem Diamonds Limited GEMD, +15.63% said it believes the 910-carat diamond is the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found.

The company described the diamond as “an exceptional quality, D colour Type IIa diamond from the Letšeng mine, the highest dollar-per-carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.”

“Since Gem Diamonds acquired Letšeng in 2006, the mine has produced some of the world’s most remarkable diamonds, including the 603-carat Lesotho Promise,” said Clifford Elphick, Gem Diamonds’ CEO, in a press release. The diamond is the largest find from the mine, which is owned in partnership with the Lesotho government.

Gem did not put a dollar value on the diamond and did not say how it will sell it. Bloomberg reported that Lucara Diamond Corp. sold a 1,109-carat diamond for $53 million last year, but got a record $63 million for a smaller 813-carat stone it found at the same time in 2015.

“The pricing of diamonds is hugely variable and driven by a multitude of factors,” Ben Davis, an analyst at Liberum Capital Markets, told the news service. “But assuming that there are no large inclusions running through the diamond, we initially estimate a sale of $40 million.”

Elphick touted the “remarkable” history of the Lesotho mine “famous for the production of large, top color, exceptional white diamonds.” It has produced a number of large diamonds in the last 12 years, including:

Gem Diamonds is a leading global diamond producer. The company owns 70% of the Letšeng mine in Lesotho and 100% of the Ghaghoo mine in Botswana.</s>LONDON — High in the mountains of a small southern African kingdom, miners have unearthed one of the largest diamonds ever found, a glittering giant weighing 910 carats, or 6.4 ounces, and probably worth tens of millions of dollars.

The stone, found in the Letseng mine in Lesotho, is the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found, and the largest in Lesotho’s history. It weighs more than a regulation baseball (about 5 ounces), and more than half as much as the average male human heart (about 10 ounces).

Gem Diamonds, the London-based company that owns a majority stake in the mine and that announced the find on Monday, described the diamond as being of extremely high quality.

It said the stone is a D color, Type IIa diamond, meaning it is colorless and very radiant, without any yellow tint or impurities like nitrogen that absorb light and decrease luster.

Gem Diamond’s stock jumped sharply on news of the discovery.

How much the rough stone will fetch at auction remains to be seen, and it will depend in part on any imperfections that limit the size of the cut and polished stones it can be fashioned into. The previous largest find in Lesotho, the 603-carat Lesotho Promise diamond, sold for $12.4 million in 2006, and diamond prices have increased significantly since then.

Stones of that size can make some of the world’s most extravagant finished jewels seem like mere baubles. Elizabeth Taylor’s famous collection of hefty jewels included a 33-carat diamond ring that sold at auction for $8.8 million in 2011, and a 69-carat diamond, both bought for her by Richard Burton in the late 1960s.</s>LONDON High in the mountains of a small southern African kingdom, miners have unearthed one of the largest diamonds ever found, a glittering giant weighing 910 carats, or 6.4 ounces, and probably worth tens of millions of dollars.

The stone, found in the Letseng mine in Lesotho, is the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found, and the largest in Lesotho's history. It weighs more than a regulation baseball (about 5 ounces), and more than half as much as the average male human heart (about 10 ounces).

Gem Diamonds, the London-based company that owns a majority stake in the mine and that announced the find Monday, described the diamond as being of extremely high quality.

It said the stone is a D colour, Type IIa diamond, meaning it is colourless and very radiant, without any yellow tint or impurities like nitrogen that absorb light and decrease lustre.

Gem Diamond's stock jumped sharply on news of the discovery.

How much the rough stone will fetch at auction remains to be seen, and it will depend in part on any imperfections that limit the size of the cut and polished stones it can be fashioned into. The previous largest find in Lesotho, the 603-carat Lesotho Promise diamond, sold for $12.4 million in 2006, and diamond prices have increased significantly since then.

Stones of that size can make some of the world's most extravagant finished jewels seem like mere baubles. Elizabeth Taylor's famous collection of hefty jewels included a 33-carat diamond ring that sold at auction for $8.8 million in 2011, and a 69-carat diamond, both bought for her by Richard Burton in the late 1960s.

The largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered, the Cullinan Diamond, weighed more than 3,100 carats, nearly three times as much as the next biggest. Several of the world's largest finished diamonds were cut from it and incorporated into Britain's Crown Jewels.

The Letseng mine, at an elevation of almost 10,000 feet, is known for producing very large, high-quality diamonds. The government of Lesotho, a constitutional monarchy surrounded by South Africa, owns a minority stake in the mine.

Diamonds and garments make up almost the entire export economy of Lesotho, a country with high rates of poverty and HIV infection. It ranks 160th out of 188 countries on the U.N. Human Development Index.</s>The fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever found has been discovered at Letšeng Diamond Mine in Lesotho, Fin24 reported on Monday.

According to British-based diamond company Gem Diamonds, the 910-carat precious stone is the largest discovered at the Letšeng mine since 2006, when the 603-carat Lesotho Promise was unearthed.

"This is a landmark recovery for all of Gem Diamonds' stakeholders, including our employees, shareholders and the government of Lesotho, our partner in the Letšeng mine," chief executive officer of Gem Diamonds Clifford Elphick said.

"Since Gem Diamonds acquired Letšeng in 2006, the mine has produced some of the world's most remarkable diamonds, including the 603-carat Lesotho Promise. However, this exceptional top-quality diamond is the largest to be mined to date."</s>A 910-carat diamond, which is believed to be the world’s fifth largest diamond, has been unearthed in Lesotho.

The stone was discovered in Letseng mine by Gem Diamonds, a UK miner with operations in Botswana and Lesotho.

Clifford Elphick, Gem Diamonds’ chief executive, says the find is a “landmark discovery” and is the largest diamond ever mined by the company. Gem Diamonds shared rose 15% after news of the find.

This is just the latest find by Gem Diamonds. In Aug. 2006, the company mined “Lesotho Promise,” a 603-carat diamond in Letseng mine. At an auction in Antwerp, Belgium less than two months later, Lesotho Promise was sold for $12.3 million—around $20,000 per carat. Analysts say the newly discovered 910-carat diamond could be worth as much as $40 million.

Gem Diamonds will be hoping that its stone has better luck at auctions unlike the last big stone found in southern Africa. In Nov. 2015, Canadian mining company Lucara discovered a 1,110-carat diamond in Karowe mine in Botswana. The tennis ball-sized diamond, later named Lesedi La Rona, meaning ‘our light’ in Tswana, was the largest diamond discovered in more than a century. However, at a June 2016 auction, a sale failed to materialize as the highest bid for the stone was $61 million—$9 million less than the owner hoped to sell it for. It was eventually sold in Sept. 2017 for $53 million.

Before now, eight of the 10 largest diamonds ever discovered have been found in Africa: Four in South Africa and another two each in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But African countries have a difficult history with diamond mining, particularly in countries like Sierra Leone and DRC, where diamonds have been shown to help fund conflict in those countries and others. In South Africa, diamond mining once helped support the oppressive apartheid political system.

Sign up for the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief — the most important and interesting news from across the continent, in your inbox.</s>A diamond thought to be the fifth largest ever found has been discovered in a mine in the southern African country of Lesotho.

The diamond is estimated to be worth at much as $40 million (£30million), according to experts.

The 910-carat stone was unearthed at the Letseng mine in Lesotho by mining company Gem Diamonds.

The company described the diamond, which is the size of two golf balls, as being of 'exceptional quality'.

'Since Gem Diamonds acquired Letseng in 2006, the mine has produced some of the world's most remarkable diamonds, including the 603 carat Lesotho Promise,' Gem Diamonds chief executive Clifford Elphick said in a statement.

'However, this exceptional top quality diamond is the largest to be mined to date... This is a landmark discovery.'

Ben Davis, a mining analyst at Liberum Capital, speculated in a research note to investors that the diamond could be worth as much as $40 million.

Gem Diamonds shares in London were up 14 percent from the market open to £0.92 a piece.
A 910 ct "D colour Type II A" diamond is dug up in the Letseng diamond mine, Lesotho.