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Updated: 04:00 AM EDT
235-Carat Diamond Found in South Africa
By Eric Onstad, Reuters
JOHANNESBURG (April 21) - A small diamond company uncovered a huge 235-carat gem -- the size of a hen's egg -- in South Africa only a few weeks after launching its operations, the firm said on Friday.
Nare Diamonds Ltd. said it uncovered the rough gem on Wednesday after resuming mining in March at the Schmidtsdrift mine, 50 miles northwest of the country's historic diamond center of Kimberley.
The mine was shut down three years ago by another firm that went bankrupt, a spokesman said. During the mine's previous operations, the average size of stones was 1.14 carats.
"The large-sized gemstone is octahedron in shape and of very good quality according to a third party assessor," the statement to the London stock exchange said.
It is hard to set a value for the diamond because typical valuation measures fall away when diamonds reach a certain size, the spokesman said.
London-listed Lonrho Africa Ltd, which recently bought a 17 percent stake in unlisted Nare, issued the statement. Its shares shot up 7.5 percent to 28-3/4 pence by 1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT).
The world's biggest diamond group, De Beers, found a 316.7 carat diamond at its South African Venetia mine in January, the largest-ever find at Venetia.
The largest-ever gem, the Cullinan, weighed in at 3,106 carats when De Beers discovered it in 1905, but other massive diamonds have ranged around 600-900 carats.
In 1986, De Beers discovered the 755.5-carat Golden Jubilee, which is now the world's largest polished diamond at just over 545 carats.
A spokesman for Nare said the discovery does not necessarily mean the mine holds other sizeable gems since it is from an alluvial deposit -- a former river bed where diamonds were swept from a smattering of other eroded deposits.
Nare, which has three other diamond projects, is planning to list on the London stock exchange around the middle of the year.
04/21/06 09:59 ET
235-Carat Diamond Found in South Africa
By Eric Onstad, Reuters
JOHANNESBURG (April 21) - A small diamond company uncovered a huge 235-carat gem -- the size of a hen's egg -- in South Africa only a few weeks after launching its operations, the firm said on Friday.
Nare Diamonds Ltd. said it uncovered the rough gem on Wednesday after resuming mining in March at the Schmidtsdrift mine, 50 miles northwest of the country's historic diamond center of Kimberley.
The mine was shut down three years ago by another firm that went bankrupt, a spokesman said. During the mine's previous operations, the average size of stones was 1.14 carats.
"The large-sized gemstone is octahedron in shape and of very good quality according to a third party assessor," the statement to the London stock exchange said.
It is hard to set a value for the diamond because typical valuation measures fall away when diamonds reach a certain size, the spokesman said.
London-listed Lonrho Africa Ltd, which recently bought a 17 percent stake in unlisted Nare, issued the statement. Its shares shot up 7.5 percent to 28-3/4 pence by 1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT).
The world's biggest diamond group, De Beers, found a 316.7 carat diamond at its South African Venetia mine in January, the largest-ever find at Venetia.
The largest-ever gem, the Cullinan, weighed in at 3,106 carats when De Beers discovered it in 1905, but other massive diamonds have ranged around 600-900 carats.
In 1986, De Beers discovered the 755.5-carat Golden Jubilee, which is now the world's largest polished diamond at just over 545 carats.
A spokesman for Nare said the discovery does not necessarily mean the mine holds other sizeable gems since it is from an alluvial deposit -- a former river bed where diamonds were swept from a smattering of other eroded deposits.
Nare, which has three other diamond projects, is planning to list on the London stock exchange around the middle of the year.
04/21/06 09:59 ET
