This one was recovered from the Liqhobong mine in the Maluti mountains. “Makeable” diamonds are those whose shape allows to cut one large diamond from it. In contrast, “sawable” stones can be cut in half in order to create two smaller diamonds. “It was a good weekend for us, recovering the 72 carat diamond as well as the two smaller, high quality stones from within the northern, lower grade part of the pit,” said Paul Bosma, CEO of Firestone Diamonds, the UK-listed company which owns the Liqhobong mine.
The Liqhobong mine
The diamonds will go on sale in May. Shares in the company were 7.3% higher at 2.2p following the news. Firestone spent $185 million building Liqhobong, which started production in late 2016. The total open pit resource contains over 17 million carats to a depth of 393 meters. Lesotho is just over 30,000 km2 in size and has a population of around 2 million. It declared independence from the United Kingdom on October 4, 1966. It is active in the United Nations and also in many African organizations.
