www.zerohedge.com by TYLER DURDEN
An enormous diamond has been unearthed in Botswana, according to a series ofĀ tweetsĀ by the Botswana government.
On Wednesday, the government of Botswana tweeted that 1,098-carat stone, believed to be the third-largest diamond ever found, was presented to President Mokgweetsi MasisiĀ by Debswana Diamond Company’s acting managing director Lynette Armstrong.
Debswana is a mining company located in Botswana and is the world’s top producer of diamonds by value. The company is a joint venture between the government of Botswana and the South African diamond company De Beers; each party owns an equal share of the company.
“The diamond which is the third-largest in the world after the first and second that were discovered in South Africa and Lucara Botswana respectively, was discovered on June 1st from Jwaneng mine’s South Kimberlite pipe, making it the largest diamond in the company’s history since diamonds were discovered in Botswana in 1967,” the government said.Ā
Masisi said the diamond would be sold, and “proceeds will be used to advance national development in the country.”
He added, “Debswana should use this latest discovery as an inflection point, for the mine to use its technology to realize more of these large discoveries.”
The announcement of the diamond’s discovery comes as IDEX Diamond Index, real-time global diamond asking prices, has risen to a five-year high.
For years, we’veĀ notedĀ diamonds have become unpopular as millennials were saturated with debt, unable to realize the American dream of marriage and a house. But thanks to global central banks and governments worldwide pumping trillions of dollars into the global economy, diamond demand has surged, and prices are way up.
