An Australian mining company dug up a 404-carat diamond in Angola measuring about the length of a credit card and worth up to $14 million.
The Perth-based Lucapa Diamond Company found the diamond in its Lulo mine about 300 miles east of Angola’s capital, Luanda, in Angola’s Lunda Norte province, USAToday reported.
“We’re not used to valuing 400-carat diamonds,” Lucapa chairman Miles Kennedy told ABCNews.
The diamond measures about 7 centimeters, or 2.75 inches across.
Almost 75 percent of Angola’s annual diamond production comes from the Lulo mine, according to Lucapa. This is the fourth 100-plus carat diamond recovered from Lulo, the largest recorded diamond found in Angola and the largest diamond found by an Australian miner.
Angola is the fourth largest diamond-producing country by value, Lucapa said.
In November, a 1,111-carat diamond almost as big as a tennis ball was found in a Botswana mine, sending stocks soaring for Vancouver-based Lucara Diamond Corp., BusinessInsider reported.
The Botswana diamond was the second largest ever found. The largest was the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan was carved up into smaller stones. The two largest — the Great Star of Africa and the Lesser Star of Africa — are part of the British crown jewels.
The Lucapa diamond is the world’s 27th largest, the company said, citing data available on Wikipedia, Fortune reported. The previous record in Angola was the Angolan Star — about half the size of the most recent find at 217.4 carats.
