Gem Diamonds, a London-listed mining firm, has recovered a 478 carat diamond from its mine in Lesotho. That makes it the 20th-largest rough diamond ever found.
The discovery of the gem was made on Sept. 8 at the Letseng mine in Lesotho. The company said it had the potential to become one of the largest round-cut diamonds in the world.
“Our examinations indicate that it will yield a record-breaking polished stone of the very best color and clarity,” the company’s Chief Executive Clifford Elphick said in a statement.
The diamond, which has not yet been named, has the potential to yield a 150 carat polished stone, a company spokesman said.
That would be far bigger than the 105 carat round-cut Koh-i-Noor diamond seized by Britain from India in the 19th century and now part of the Crown Jewels.
It would still only be a fraction of the size, however, of the Cullinan diamond discovered in 1905, which was 3,106 carats when recovered and yielded a teardrop shaped diamond of 530 carats and is known as the Great Star of Africa.
(AFP)
倫敦上市採礦公司「寶石鑽石」在賴索托礦區挖到一顆四百七十八克拉的鑽石，是歷來開採到第二十大的鑽石原石。
九月八日，該公司在賴索托的賴僧礦區發現這顆寶石。該公司表示，它可望成為全球最大的圓形切割鑽之一。
該公司執行長克里夫德．艾菲克在一份聲明中說：「我們的檢驗顯示，這顆鑽石將可切割出一顆色澤和淨度都極佳的破紀錄大裸鑽。」
該公司發言人說，這顆尚未命名的鑽石，可望被琢磨成一顆一百五十克拉的裸鑽。
那將會遠大於一百零五克拉的柯伊努爾（光之山）圓鑽；英國十九世紀時從印度手中奪取該鑽，現在它成了女王皇冠上的鑲鑽之一。
然而，它的大小可能還只佔一九Ｏ五年發現的庫利南鑽石的一小部分，當時發現的原石有三千一百零六克拉，後來切割琢磨出一顆五百三十克拉的淚滴型鑽石，被稱為「非洲之星」。
（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）
The weight of a diamond is always measured in carats. A carat is exactly 200mg. The word comes from “carob,” the seeds of which were used to measure gems in ancient time.
鑽石的重量向來以「克拉」為計算單位，一克拉正好等於兩百毫克。克拉這個字源於「carob（角豆樹）」，古時人們利用角豆樹的種籽來測量寶石的重量。
RSS