Huge 603-carat diamond sold for over $12 million

Antwerp has been very prominent in diamond cutting for five hundred years—the first written mention of diamond cutting is in Antwerp in 1550. Located in the Flemish section of the country, Antwerp is on the northwest coast of Belgium. In the very early years of European development, Antwerp was over-shadowed by Brugge in terms of international trading, but became the absolute center of Belgian trading when Brugge was struck by the plague.

The 603-carat 'Lesotho Promise', named after the country where it was found, went under the hammer at the Antwerp Diamond Centre and was sold to the South African Diamond Corporation, owner of luxury jewellers Graff.It is thought it will be cut into a large heart-shaped diamond and several smaller stones before being sold.Stuart McDill reports.SOUNDBITE: Clifford Elphick, CEO Gem Diamond Mining saying (English):"As reported to me, she started screaming and the rest of the staff thought she had been electrocuted and they ran into there to see if she was okay to be confronted with the Lesotho Promise."

SOUNDBITE: Johnny Kneller, South African Diamond Corporation saying (English):"We have to scan the stone for about 3 months, that will take a long long time to see what is exactly inside and then we try to get the best possible certificate and the best possible diamonds, so you can't say exactly the retail price but we hope it is going to be over 20 million."© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

Oct. 10 - The largest diamond found for more than a decade has been sold in Antwerp for 12,360,000 USD.

The 603-carat 'Lesotho Promise', named after the country where it was found, went under the hammer at the Antwerp Diamond Centre and was sold to the South African Diamond Corporation, owner of luxury jewelers Graff.

It is thought it will be cut into a large heart-shaped diamond and several smaller stones before being sold.

Stuart McDill reports.