Huge Diamond Discovered - But Not By Me! 

A correspondent brought this to my attention. It is from The Mineralogical Record but I could not find an online source, so I have copied some of what he sent me.

The Debswana mining company in Botswana recently announced the discovery of a huge diamond that they believe ranks as the third-largest gem-quality diamond crystal ever found—the two larger ones being the Cullinan (3,106 carats, found in 1905) and the Lesedi La Rona diamond, 2,109 carats, found in 2015). The new, as-yet unnamed diamond weighs 1,098 carats (7¾ ounces) and measures 7.3 cm (2.9 inches) × 2.7 × 5.2 cm. If you had this crystal in your collection and wanted to compete with it at the Tucson Show, it might be a bit too large for the “miniature” category (maximum 2 inches), so you would have to enter it in the “small cabinet” category!

 

The crystal was found at the Jwaneng mine, located about 75 miles from the capitol city of Gaborone and operated jointly by the Botswana Government and the De Beers Group. Officially opened in 1982, the mine typically yields between 12.5 million and 15 million carats of diamonds a year. This month's find is the largest gem unearthed by the company since diamonds were first discovered in Botswana in 1967. Whether the new diamond will be sold through De Beers channels or through the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company has yet to be decided, so you still have a chance to acquire it for your collection. But you’ll need deep pockets; the Lesedi La Rona diamond sold for $15 million.

The diamond is sub-rounded. Presumably on its journey up the kimberlite pipe the corners got knocked off. 

I once found the diamond from my wife's ring on the kitchen floor, but it was a bit smaller than this one.