In just six days, four huge flawless diamonds have been discovered at Lesotho’s Letseng diamond mine high in the Maluti mountains.
The four stones together weigh 366 carats and mine chief executive Keith Whitelock says he expects them to fetch a minimum of $6-million (R36-million).
“Each one is of the highest quality of white stone — D flawless,” said Whitelock “there is a world-wide shortage of large high-quality stones so $6-million might even be a little conservative.”
Letseng was only officially opened last year after investment from Brett Kebble’s mining finance company JCI and is already exceeding expectations.
The mine is now jointly owned by JCI Limited, Matodzi Resources and the Lesotho government.
“Letseng is unique because it regularly produces very large high quality stones,” said Whitelock.
“The big stones we have just discovered were found in the normal course of production. Because we know that very big stones appear regularly, we had to design a recovery process that would recognise much larger gems than are usually found in other diamond mines; fortunately the process is working well.”
The run of good fortune began on January 21 when a flawless 76-carat stone was recovered. This was followed two days later by a 112-carat stone. On January 25 a 106-carat beauty turned up and a further 72-carat stone was recovered on January 26.
“I can’t wait for the rest of the week,” quipped Whitelock.
Whitelock says the stones will be sold as one parcel and the sale is expected to take place within days.
“The stones are already on their way to Europe,” he said.
JCI’s Brett Kebble said that Letseng was proving to be an even better investment than he had anticipated.
“We invested in Letseng because the mine has a solid history of producing high quality stones which fetch a premium on the world market. The regularity with which they are appearing is better than we predicted and we may have to revise our production forecasts if the trend continues,” he said.
The mine has produced three diamonds larger than 500 carats in the 50 years that the existence of diamonds has been known in the area. In November 2003, Letseng Diamonds discovered a 215 carat diamond which fetched $2,31-million, equivalent to $10Â 750 per carat.
A week later, the company found a 95 carat gem on its sorting table which fetched $1,57-million, equivalent to $16Â 433 per carat. In November 2004, a spectacular 123 carat flawless white diamond was discovered days before the official opening ceremony and sold for $2,33-million. – I-Net Bridge