Facing new technology behind the findings of the super diamonds? – Swedish daily newspaper

L Undine family’s diamond company Lucara has set a new world record price for a rough diamond. The Constellation, at 813 carats, was sold for half a billion crowns. Is it chance or new technology that allows super diamonds seem to be more common?

Lesedi la Rona, one of the very large diamonds Lucara Diamond has found. Photo: Lucara

Oslo The previous year has been spekakulärt for Lucara Diamond, with two giant discoveries in Karowe mine in Botswana. Lukas Lundin, who is chairman of the mining company, was almost euphoric when Svenska Dagbladet interviewed him in November about the discovery of a rough diamond at 1109 carats, the second largest ever found. It was named Lesedi La Rona. Lundin family owns 19 percent of Lucara Diamond.

The Constellation, which is now sold for $ 63 million, is like comparing the 813 carat and the sixth largest diamond found. If you only count with the same price per carat the larger the diamond worth $ 86 million, or SEK 692 million. Auction house Sotheby’s valued the diamond last week more cautiously to 70 million, or SEK 595 million, before the auction on 29 June.

There are not many activities where a single item affects earnings so much. Lucara Diamond expects a turnover of 220 million dollars a year, not counting sales of the two diamonds. Sales of The Constellation is therefore equivalent to 29 percent of sales. Then the mining company during the year have dug up 2.3 million ore and found diamonds adding up to 350,000 to 400,000 carats.

The price per carat is 77 649 dollars for The Constellation. Previously, analysts had forecast that Lesedi La Rona will be sold for 60,000 to 70,000 dollars per carat. It can be adjusted up now.

1 carat equals 0.2 grams. Lesedi La Rona weighs in other words, nearly a quarter of a kilo.

The question you can ask yourself is the Lundin family, which bought Karowefyndigheten six years ago, happened to have a completely unlikely turn just found the place on earth where the largest diamonds were hidden? The mine extracts 0.3 percent of the world’s diamonds, but 40 percent of the diamonds larger than 100 carats. Or is it more about the technology?

Diamonds are formed at 150-200 kilometers deep in the crust. At that depth, the temperature 900-1300 degrees and the pressure is 50,000 times higher than in the atmosphere at the Earth’s surface. That’s what pushes ordinary carbon into diamonds. When the rocks of the sort wandering up toward the Earth’s surface are called kimberlite. The name comes from the mining town of Kimberley in South Africa. Kimberlite occurs as the carrot-shaped, vertical cells, which are called “pipes”.

Lucara Diamond has installed a new kind malmkrossare at the open-pit mine in Botswana and a sorting and X-ray equipment that makes it easier to get the really big the diamonds.

What happens when the other diamond mines are installing the same equipment? Will there be inflation in large diamonds then? Those who know the business well do not see that competition is the biggest threat – it is rather to Lucara find even more gigantic diamonds. Then the price may fall.