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Botswana Says Huge 2,492-carat Diamond Uncovered at Mine

FILE PHOTO: Diamonds are displayed during a visit to the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) in the capital Gaborone in Botswana, November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Diamonds are displayed during a visit to the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) in the capital Gaborone in Botswana, November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo
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Botswana Says Huge 2,492-carat Diamond Uncovered at Mine

FILE PHOTO: Diamonds are displayed during a visit to the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) in the capital Gaborone in Botswana, November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Diamonds are displayed during a visit to the De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (GSS) in the capital Gaborone in Botswana, November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo

Botswana says one of the largest diamonds ever found has been unearthed at one of its mines and will be put on show on Thursday.
The Botswana government believes the huge 2,492-carat stone is the biggest discovered in the country, and the second-biggest ever brought out of a mine.
Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp. said in a statement Wednesday that it recovered the “exceptional” rough diamond from its Karowe Mine in western Botswana. Lucara said it was a "high-quality" stone and was found intact. It was located using X-ray technology.
The weight would make it the largest diamond found in more than 100 years and the second-largest ever dug out of a mine after the Cullinan Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905, The Associated Press reported. The Cullinan was 3,106 carats and was cut into gems, some of which form part of the British Crown Jewels.
A bigger black diamond was discovered in Brazil in the late 1800s, but it was found on the surface and was believed to have been part of a meteorite.
Botswana is the second biggest producer of diamonds and has unearthed all of the world's biggest stones in recent years.
Before this discovery, the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the Karowe Mine in 2019, was recognized as the second-biggest mined diamond in the world at 1,758 carats. It was bought by French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed amount.
The 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, also from Botswana's Karowe Mine, was bought by a British jeweler for $53 million in 2017.

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2 Injured Russian Climbers Rescued after 6 Days Stranded on Pakistan Peak

Paramedical staff prepare an isolation ward in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
Paramedical staff prepare an isolation ward in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
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2 Injured Russian Climbers Rescued after 6 Days Stranded on Pakistan Peak

Paramedical staff prepare an isolation ward in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
Paramedical staff prepare an isolation ward in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

After six days of being stranded on a remote peak in Pakistan’s northeast, two injured Russian climbers were finally rescued, while another remains missing and is presumed dead, a mountaineering official said Wednesday.
The five-member climbing team, which began their expedition on one of Gasherbrum's peaks to retrieve the body of a fellow climber who died there last year, was hit by a pile of ice on Friday, officials said. Rescuers airlifted two of the mountaineers Monday while more planning was needed to rescue the other two who were unable to move because of their injuries, The Associated Press reported.
An army helicopter, backed by local volunteers, helped rescue the two injured on Tuesday, said Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, adding that the third climber fell into a crevasse and couldn’t be located.
Haidri said Wednesday the two were moved from the peak to the base camp and were in stable condition. “A helicopter was set to transport them to the northern city of Skardu, but it could not fly due to bad weather,” he said, and that they were trying to find another way to get them to a hospital.
The Russian team, which was not accompanied by guides or sherpas, took an unusual route on Gasherbrum.
While Haidri acknowledged that the climbers were hit by the ice formation while “ascending the mountain for a noble cause," he still warned against such endeavors.
“Climbers are fully aware of the dangers linked to such missions, but they still opt for dangerous and unexplored routes,” he said. “This is how climbers make records but also come across challenges."
Hundreds of climbers try to scale mountains in northern Pakistan every year, and accidents are common because of avalanches and sudden weather changes. This month, a Pakistani climber Murad Sadpara, 35, known for taking part in high-altitude rescue missions died during a descent from one of the country’s tallest mountains in the north.