A diamond the size of a tennis ball is set to rake in some serious cash.
The diamond, which was unearthed by the Lucara Diamond Corporation, is expected to be worth a total of $70 million and net about $35 million for the company, Bloomberg reported.
The gem, dubbed the Lesedi La Rona, is the largest diamond mined in over a century and is a a 1,109-carat gem-quality stone. It’ll be auctioned off by Sotheby’s on June 29.
It’s expected that nearly 50% of the diamond’s proceeds from the auction will go to Lucara. “There’s blue-sky potential,” CEO William Lamb told Bloomberg in an interview. “You only need two people that desperately want it, and then you’ll get a good price.”
The company’s stock has soared thanks to the diamond’s discovery and expected value. Per the publication:
Shares of Vancouver-based Lucara rallied 8.4 percent to C$3.47 at 2:10 p.m. in Toronto, extending its gain in 2016 to 52 percent. The stock surged 30 percent on Nov. 19, when it announced the discovery of the diamond, second in size only to the Cullinan diamond cut into the Great Star of Africa gem in the British Crown jewels.
The diamond will be auctioned off in its rough form and could be cut to 400 carats. “Nobody knows what a 400-carat diamond is worth,” Lamb said.
