Gem Diamonds Discovers Another Spectacular Stone in Lesotho

Gem Diamonds (LSE:GEMD) has discovered yet another giant gem in Lesotho. The 138-carat white diamond revealed this week makes 2018 a record year of recovery for the Africa-focused miner.

The company’s Letseng mine in Lesotho has produced 11 diamonds this year of more than 100 carats. The most recent discovery of the 138-carat, top white color, type IIa diamond breaks the company’s previous record set in 2015 — that year, 11 diamonds of over 100 carats were recovered from Letseng.

Gem Diamonds says its Lesotho mine is the highest-dollar-per-carat kimberlite mine in the world.

With another four months left in the current year, it is possible the company may recover another giant gem, and if location has anything to do with it Gem Diamonds is definitely in the right country.

This past January at the Letseng mine, Gem Diamonds unearthed a massive 910-carat diamond, which the company named the Lesotho Legend. The discovery is said to be the fifth-largest diamond ever recovered. The nearly 1,000-carat diamond sold at auction in March for US$40 million.

The landlocked nation located in Southern Africa hasn’t just been lucrative for Gem Diamonds. Lesotho has a long history of producing some of the most exquisite diamonds on Earth, including the 603-carat Lesotho Promise, the 601-carat Lesotho Brown and the 550-carat Letseng Star.

Australian diamond miner Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) has also been fortunate in Lesotho.

The explorer has already recovered nearly a dozen diamonds of more than 100 carats from its Mothae mine in Lesotho. Lucapa is still in the exploratory phase of mining at Mothae, and only commenced production at the highly profitable mine in the second half of this year.

Gem Diamonds’ share price was up 1.54 percent on Wednesday (August 15), closing at GBX 115.25.

Image courtesy of Gem Diamonds.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.