(4 May 2016) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus054784
It's a rock for the ages.
A 3-billion-year-old diamond the size of a tennis ball _ the largest discovered in over a century _ could sell for more than $70 million.
Sotheby's auction house plans to offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on June 29.
The diamond was unearthed in November in Botswana at a mine owned by Canada's Lucara Diamond Corporation.
It measured 1,109 carats, the second-largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered.
Its name means "our light" in the Tswana language of southern Africa.
David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby's jewelry division, called the discovery "the find of a lifetime" and the auction unprecedented.
The largest diamond ever found was the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, unearthed in South Africa in 1905. It was cut into nine pieces that form part of the U.K. Crown Jewels.
The Lesedi la Rona could smash the record price for a diamond of $48.5 million, paid at a Geneva sale last year for the 12.03-carat polished "Blue Moon" diamond. Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau picked it up as a gift for his 7-year-old daughter.
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