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The company that unearthed the world’s second-largest diamond but has so far failed to sell it, is mulling a partnership to sell the giant stone if a buyers is not found within the next six to eight weeks.
Speaking on a conference call to analysts Friday, Lucara Diamond (TSX:LUC) CEO William Lamb said the Vancouver-based miner has “one or two” options for an outright sale, but such bids have failed to materialize, starting with the first attempt at a sale last summer at a Sotheby’s auction.
“What we are asking for, for the stone, is for a company to go out and spend the equivalent of 280 Lamborghinis.”: Lucara Diamond CEO William Lamb
Bidding for the now historic 1,109-carat “Lesedi La Rona,” which means “our light” in the Tswana language spoken in Botswana, stalled at around $61 million — short of the expected $70 million.
The amount for a single buyer to pay is indeed daunting.
“Everybody on the call will most fully would know one or two wealthy people who, on the weekend, could go out and buy a Lamborghini at [US]$250,000,” Lamb said during the call. “What we are asking for, for the stone, is for a company to go out and spend the equivalent of 280 Lamborghinis.”
Reuters reported in July that Lucara would probably have to cut the tennis-ball-sized diamond in order for it to sell. Discovered at Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana in November 2015, the only diamond larger is the 3,106.5-carat Cullinan, which was cut into 105 diamonds, including several British Crown Jewels.
Lamb recently said that another challenge to fetch what Lesedi La Rona is worth, is the fact that the polishing itself is risky.
The unsold diamond weighs heavily on the company’s shares, which are down more than 30% from late 2016.
Comments
Altaf
There is one more option. The diamond to be digitalized and the details sent to the world’s top 10 or 20 diamond cutters / polishers like Graf. Lucara will get from them the best possible options to cut the raw stone. Lucara to choose one of the option from the 10 or 20. Based on the feedback, the futures of each and every cut and polished gems to be auctioned off. This way, the buyers do not have to buy whole stone. They can bid for the portion they are interested in. As soon as all the bigger gems (above 1-2 carats) are sold in auction, the stone to be handed over to the choosen polisher / cutter. As soon as the polisher finish the job and delivers the gem to the buyer, payment gets released to Lucara. The smaller gems will be used to pay for the cutter / polishers fee and the entire innovative process which involves miner, cutter/polisher and the buyer.
The stories of the real time events will give media coverage to Lucara.