493 Carat Lesotho White Diamond Named the Letseng Legacy

The 18th largest rough diamond ever mined was recovered in September 2007 at the Letseng mine in Lesotho. The mine’s owners have announced the naming of the 493 carat stone as the “Letseng Legacy.”

The name is intended to reflect the growing legacy that the Letseng le Terai Mine is creating as a producer of notable diamonds, the company said.

The mine has produced three of the world’s top 20 diamonds by size. Two of these diamonds were recovered by Gem Diamonds in the last 13 months – the 603 carat Lesotho Promise (recovered August 2006) and this stone – and the third, the Lesotho Brown, was discovered in 1961 and is the world’s 16th largest.

The 493 carat white diamond will be sold on tender in Antwerp by WWW International Diamond Consultants on November 14, at a ceremony attended by Lesotho government ministers and Gem Diamonds directors. The Lesotho Promise was sold on tender in October 2006 for $12.4 million to Graff Jewelers.

The Letseng mine is owned by Gem Diamonds (70 percent) and the government of the Kingdom of Lesotho (30 percent).