A diamond company operating in southern Africa has announced that it has discovered a rare blue diamond and that this will be auctioned off at its upcoming tender, Equities.com reports. The Lucara Diamond Corp. unearthed the first blue diamond to have emerged from its Karowe mine in Botswana, a 9.46-carat Type II blue stone.



Lucara president and chief executive officer William Lamb acknowledged the windfall, calling it very important. Lamb said the discovery of the blue stone was proof positive that its earlier projections of a healthy distribution of diamonds at Karowe were well-founded.



Lucara will bring the blue diamond to tender on November 26, along with more than 57,000 carats of stones harvested at Karowe, according to Equities.com. The firm's Mothae mine in Lesotho is not yet at full production stage, but a September sale of 4,657 carats of diamonds mined there garnered $1.51 million in sales for Lucara.