Gem Diamonds has announced the recovery of a high-quality 161 carat, white colour Type II diamond from its Letšeng mine in Lesotho. The diamond was recovered on March 21, 2019.
At the end of 2018, Gem Diamonds recovered a 125 carat high quality white, Type IIa diamond from Letšeng – the 15th diamond greater than 100 carats to be recovered in 2018. On December 19, the miner announced the recovery of two high quality, white Type IIa diamonds from Letšeng: a 101 carat stone and a 71 carat stone, both recovered within a 24-hour period at Letšeng.
Last month, Gem Diamonds reported its sales performance for the fourth quarter of 2018 and the full year 2018, saying that “the demand and prices for Letšeng’s large high-quality white rough diamonds have remained firm”. One of the highlights of the report is the 10% rise year-on-year in the average price per carat achieved in 2018. Gem Diamonds raked in $2,131 per carat in 2018, compared with $1,930 per carat in 2017.