Vancouver-based miner Lucara found a 2,492-carat diamond in August. Since then, the company’s CEO has urged patience in the hunt for a buyer as the sector looks to dig itself out of a price slump
The morning of Aug. 19 started off much like any other at Lucara Diamond Corp.’s Karowe mine in Botswana, a roughly 270-metre deep open pit on the edge of the Kalahari desert that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But on that day, a 2,492-carat diamond — believed to be the second largest ever held by a human — completed a journey from hundreds of kilometres inside the Earth’s mantle up to the planet’s surface.
After billions of years of travel, its fate upon arrival fell into the hands of William Lamb, chief executive of Lucara, whose sector has been going through its own upheaval amid a collapse in the price of diamonds in recent years.
Lamb, who is based half a world away from Botswana in Vancouver where Lucara is headquartered, skips over the question of how much the stone may be worth in dollars. Instead, he’s contemplating its value in a larger sense.
With all the notoriety and intrigue the stone is generating around the world, he sees an opportunity to reframe the narrative about diamond mining into something positive instead of an environmental and social disaster that’s lately been shunned by both investors and customers.
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