The diamond has been named “Lesedi La Rona” which means Our Light.
On January 18, 2016 the Lucara Diamond company in Botswana launched a competition to find a name for the spectacular 1,111 carat gem quality diamond recovered from its’ Karowe mine in November 2015. The Type IIa diamond is the biggest diamond ever recovered in Botswana, the second largest diamond ever found, and the largest found in over 100 years.
The winner of the competition, which was only open to citizens of Botswana and saw over 11,000 entries, was Thembani Moitlhobogi who received a prize of 25,000 Pula ($2200).
CEO and President of Lucara, William Lamb, said on the company’s website: “The outpouring of pride and patriotism shown by all the participants in the contest was incredible. ‘Lesedi La Rona’ symbolises the pride and history of the people of Botswana.”
Lamb also told reporters in Cape Town that the diamond would be auctioned off after it goes on secret road show. The road show is to showcase the stone to any potential buyer, but Lamb wouldn’t give away any locations, as the company wanted to “protect its asset” through exclusive invitations to view the diamond.
“The biggest challenge on the road show is that the weight to value ratio of the stone makes it potentially the highest-value item on the planet right now,” Lamb said.