The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, June 30, edition that Lucara Diamond shed 57 Canadian cents to close in Toronto at $3.35 (Canadian) on
Wednesday after the giant gemstone
it discovered last year failed
to sell at a London auction.
The Globe's Ian McGugan writes that the top bid of $61-million (U.S.)
fell short of Lucara's minimum
selling price for its historic discovery.
The 1,109-carat stone is the
largest diamond unearthed in
more than a century.
Lucara stock
had doubled in price over the past
year as it produced a stream
of supersized diamonds from its
Karowe mine in Botswana.
It named the biggest of its discoveries
Lesedi La Rona, which
means "our light" in the Tswana
language of southern Africa. Sotheby's,
the auction house, had predicted
that the stone could fetch
$70-million (U.S.) when it went up for
bids on Wednesday.
Instead, bids fell short of Lucara's
so-called reserve price -- the
lowest price it would accept for
the stone -- and the company
announced that it would retain its
prize find.
Lucara
decided to go that auction house route because
it wanted to see if there were
ultrarich buyers who would value
the Lesedi La Rona as a one-of-a-kind
collectible.
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