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UPDATE 1-Giant Lucara diamond fails to sell at Sotheby's auction

Published 2016-06-29, 03:18 p/m
© Reuters. UPDATE 1-Giant Lucara diamond fails to sell at Sotheby's auction
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(Adds details on price expectations, analyst comment, stock
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June 29 (Reuters) - Lucara Diamond Corp's LUC.TO giant
Lesedi la Rona gem, the biggest uncut diamond to be discovered
in over a century, failed to sell at a Sotheby's auction in
London on Wednesday after bids fell short of the minimum reserve
price, the company said.
As a result, Lucara will be retaining the 1,109-carat stone,
it said in a statement. The tennis ball-sized gem was discovered
by the Vancouver-based company in its Botswana mine last
November.
The auction house had estimated that the diamond would sell
for more than $70 million. The highest bid was $61 million,
according to posts on Twitter.
Shares in Lucara fell nearly 14 percent to C$3.37 on the
Toronto Stock Exchange.
"The result is a disappointing one, and potentially calls
into question the sale method chosen," BMO analyst Edward Sterck
said in a note to clients. Large, rare diamonds are usually
offered for sale to small groups of diamond dealers rather than
by public auction.
The Lesedi la Rona, which means "Our Light" in the Tswana
language spoken in Botswana, is the world's second-biggest gem
quality diamond ever recovered, and the largest in more than a
century.
The biggest is the Cullinan diamond, a 3,106-carat stone
found in South Africa in 1905.

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