The discovery of a new diamond could rewrite the record books.

Canadian diamond miner Lucara Diamond Corp. has struck the second-largest diamond in history and the largest diamond ever discovered in Botswana, Bloomberg reported. The company discovered the colossal 2,492-carat rough gem in the South African state’s Karowe mine. The oversized stone is the largest found since the extraordinary 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, found in South Africa in 1905. Named after mine owner Thomas Cullinan, it was later cut into nine large stones and set into the British Crown Jewels.

“We are thrilled to have recovered this exceptional 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara CEO William Lamb said in a press release. The miner made the discovery using the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology. Lucara has been using the technology since 2017 to identify and preserve large, high-quality diamonds so they don’t break during the mining process. “The ability to recover such a massive, high-quality stone intact demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach to diamond recovery,” Lamb continued.

The unearthing of this massive stone is certainly one of the most significant discoveries in recent years and one of many headline-grabbing finds at Lucara’s wholly-owned Karowe mine. In 2015, the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona stone was found and later sold to Graff Diamonds for a whopping $53 million – or $47,777 per carat. More recently, in 2021, Lucara stumbled upon a massive 1,098-carat diamond at its Karowe mine. At the time, it was the third 1,000-carat-plus diamond found since 2015. Less than a week later, the company recovered an even larger stone, weighing 1,174.76 carats.

Most notable, however, is the 1,758-carat Sewelô diamond, unearthed in April 2019. The grey-black stone was dug up in Botswana and eventually purchased by French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton in 2020 to be turned into fine jewelry. The tennis ball-sized sparkle means “rare find” in the indigenous Setswana language. However, with this new stone, the Sewelô from Lucara is now dethroned as the second largest rough diamond in the world.

“This discovery reinforces Karowe’s position as a truly world-class diamond mine and underscores the continued success of our operational and underground development strategy,” said Lamb.