Firestone Diamonds recovers 134 carat diamond at Lesotho mine

Firestone Diamonds announced on Tuesday the recovery of its 134 carat gem-quality, light yellow diamond from its Lesotho diamond mine, the largest stone the AIM-quoted miner has unearthed to date.

Its recovery, at a location emerging as one of Africa's significant new diamond producing areas, reinforced the potential for more large stones to be discovered at Liqhobong as the company continued early stage mining, the group said.

Liqhobong is owned 75% by Firestone and 25% by the government of Lesotho.

Lesotho has long been known as a source of large, high-quality diamonds from alluvial deposits and the Letseng-la-Terai deposit originally mined by De Beers between 1970 and 1981, but Firestone says most of the country’s potential diamond assets have to date remained unexploited.

Lesotho possesses 39 known kimberlite pipes and 366 kimberlite blows and dykes, of which 24 have been discovered to be diamondiferous.

The Firestone-controlled Liqhobong pipes are near to others considered significant such as the Kao, Lemphane and Mothae diamond pipes, all high in the Maluti mountains.