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The Letšeng Legacy ranks as
the 18th largest rough diamond ever recovered and was named to reflect the growing
significance of the mine, which has produced three of the world’s top
20 diamonds (including the 603 ct Lesotho
Promise recovered in August 2006, the Lesotho Brown diamond and this 493
ct diamond).
This
remarkable 493 carat diamond was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine in the Maluti Mountains in Lesotho, a kingdom surrounded by South Africa on September 7th
2007. At over 3000 meters above sea level, it ranks as the highest diamond
mine in the world.
Three years ago in 2006 Graff bought the massive 603 Lesotho Promise, the
coincidence of finding two enormous rough diamonds in such a short period is
counted as truly extraordinary.
The Letseng Legacy was sold at an auction
in Antwerp on November 14th 2007, to SAFDICO the manufacturing arm
of Graff Jewellers for $10.4 million. The Lesotho Promise was sold at a
similar tender in October 2006 for $12.4 million to Graff Jewelers, who then
produced a collection of polished stones valued as high as $30 million.
 
Graff’s production
company, Safdico, acquired the Letseng Legacy diamond and was responsible for
cutting the stone in Antwerp.
Gem Diamonds recently announced
that they are doubling the size of the Lesotho mining operations and expects
to discover more large (over 100 carats) diamonds.
The Letseng Diamonds Company is
70% owned by mining company Gem Diamonds and 30% owned by the government of Lesotho.
Production at the mine this year
has price per carats yields of about 15 times higher than world average
diamond prices, which reflects the larger size and higher quality of the
stone recovered
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