A model poses for photographs holding up the largest gem-quality rough cut diamond discovered in over 100 years. Photo / AP
The biggest diamond found in more than 100 years failed to sell at an auction in London after the highest bid of US$61 million didn't meet the company's minimum selling price.
Based on a diamond sale in May, the 1109-carat diamond that's called Lesedi la Rona, or "our light" in
the Tswana language spoken in Botswana, might have sold for about US$86 million, which would have made it the most expensive rough gem on record.
Yet the US$61 million bid didn't reach the so-called reserve price at a Sotheby's auction today.
The giant stone was unearthed at Lucara Diamond Corp.'s Karowe mine in Botswana. The company is gaining a reputation for producing the world's biggest and best stones and sold an 813-carat diamond for US$63 million in May, a record, to Nemesis International DMCC, a Dubai-based rough-diamond trading company.
The Lesedi la Rona, just smaller than a tennis ball, is second in size only to the Cullinan, a 3106-carat gem found near Pretoria in South Africa in 1905.
