Mining company Lucara Diamond based-квартирой in Canada 29 Jun 2016 put up for auction Sotheby's largest known uncut diamond.

Lesedi La Rona — "Our light" (Our Light) 1111 weighing carat (materials Sotheby's quoted a number 1109 carats) was found in a mine in Botswana on 16 November 2015. The weighty weight of the diamond was about 221 g with dimensions of 65 × 56 × 40 mm — almost a tennis ball. Press reports said that the stone is of high purity and has no bad cracks. So after a cut it will probably be the largest diamond in the world.

a Competitor to "Our world" was a diamond, "Cullinan", found in 1905 in South Africa. The weight of that stone was 3106 carats — 621 G. But the "Cullinan" was cracked and had to be split into several parts for subsequent cutting of the pieces. Preserved the story that the cutter Joseph Asscher (Asscher studied the stone for several months before put to the crack tool. After hitting the chisel jeweller fainted from nervous tension. But all went well, eyes-алмаз, the pieces have been cut and now adorn the crown of the British Empire.

Sothebys suggests that for diamond Lesedi La Rona can be raised about $70 million and $90 million In the past year, one of the world's finest diamonds, "Blue moon" (cut diamond) Sotheby's sold for $48 million And the stone was much smaller.

Vladimir Bogdanov, AI

Sources: lucaradiamond.com, tass.ru