Uncut diamond, at 1,175-carats, is third largest in world

• The Lucara Diamond mining company and manufacturer HB Antwerp have put on display a 1,175-carat diamond in New York City, in an effort to increase investors’ enthusiasm for rough and natural diamonds
• The stone, unveiled at the Whitby Hotel in upper midtown Manhattan, is the largest rough diamond to be displayed in the U.S. and the third-largest ever discovered
• The two companies teamed up in 2020 with Louis Vuitton to showcase the Sewelo diamond, also extracted from the Karowe Mine

NEW YORK CITY, New York: The Lucara Diamond mining company and manufacturer HB Antwerp have put on display a 1,175-carat diamond in New York City, in an effort to increase investors’ enthusiasm for rough and natural diamonds.

The stone, unveiled at the Whitby Hotel in upper midtown Manhattan, is the largest rough diamond to be displayed in the U.S. and the third-largest ever discovered, according to the companies.

HB Antwerp has not decided whether the uncut diamond, one of three weighing over 1,000 carats extracted from the Karowe Mine in Botswana, will be cut into polished stones, officials told Reuters.

The two companies teamed up in 2020 with Louis Vuitton to showcase the Sewelo diamond, also extracted from the Karowe Mine.

“We have been in the business for many years, but these types of things do get us excited because of the sheer size,” said Oded Mansori, chief executive officer of HB Antwerp, as quoted by Reuters.

While lab-grown diamonds are being considered viable commercial alternatives to real diamonds, the companies are now seeking to highlight the natural state of the stone.

“We do expect to recover more exceptional diamonds in excess of a thousand carats in size, but on a global basis, this is still an extremely rare and unusual event,” said Eira Thomas, chief executive of Lucara Diamond.

In 2015, Lucara Diamond began using x-ray technology to locate and identify diamonds buried in the earth.