Sierra Leone pastor discovers 13th largest diamond ever for Stellar Diamonds

Shares rose in Stellar Diamonds on Friday after the miner announced that a church minister had discovered a 709 carat diamond in Sierra Leone, which it claims is the 13th largest ever found.

The diamond was found in the Konu district, which had been ravaged by civil war in the 1990s, by a pastor who supplemented his low income by mining for minerals.

The diamond, which is thought to be the 13th largest uncut diamond ever discovered, is set to be auctioned with the value not known, although a 813 carat diamond was sold for £51m last month in London, according to the Telegraph.

Stellar said that the discovery reaffirmed its belief that "Sierra Leone ranks in the very top tier globally for the production of large and high quality diamonds".

The AIM-listed company has invested £5.5m to date in the development of its Tongo kimberlite diamond project and the proposed tribute mining agreement with Octea Mining of the adjacent Tonguma project.

The Tongo and Tonguma mines are expected to generate post-tax net present value of $104m and an initial rate of return of 31%, with estimated projected life of mine revenues of $1.518bn with diamond grades and prices of 100-260 carats per hundred tons and $209 to $310 per carat, respectively.

The licences currently have a combined diamond resource of 4.5m carats.

Shares in Stella were up 7.32% to 5.50p at 0843 GMT.