Botswana's state-owned Okavango Diamond Company unveiled the biggest blue diamond ever discovered in the southern African country. Diamond was found as 41.11 carat rough, while later faceted to magnificent 20.46 carat stone in an oval shape. It has been named"The Okavango Blue" in honour of the Okavango Delta, the country's wildlife-rich world heritage site.
Although the famous Hope Diamond is larger at 45.52 carats, the Okavango Blue has far superior clarity, being graded by GIA as VVS2 compared to the Hope Diamond of VS1.
Also worth mentioning is that the Okavango Blue is a Type IIb "fancy blue" diamond (which means it contain significant baron impurities), which is one of the rarest as less than 0.1% of all gem-quality natural diamonds in the world belong to this category. Therefore, making the Okavango Blue very valuable, rivaling the Hope Diamond!
Photo Credit & courtesy of Okavango Diamond Company.