LUCARA Diamond Corporation’s 1,758 carat diamond Sewelô, recovered at its Karowe operation in Botswana, would be cut, polished and turned into a collection of Louis Vuitton jewellery, the Toronto-listed company announced.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Louis Vuitton, the famous luxury House, to transform the historic, 1,758 carat Sewelô, Botswana’s largest diamond, into a collection of fine jewellery that will commemorate this extraordinary discovery and contribute direct benefits to our local communities of interest in Botswana,” said Eira Thomas, Lucara CEO.
However, it’s unclear how valuable the polished diamonds will be, said Bloomberg News referring to comments by Lucara management which said previously the Sewelô diamond was not the type of goods that yielded top jewellery-standard gems.
Lucara will get a “non material” upfront fee and own 50% of the polished diamonds from the Sewelô, or “rare find” in Tswana, said the newswire.
Louis Vuitton has been pushing into fine jewellery since opening a flagship store on Paris’s Place Vendôme — the famed district home to Cartier and Boucheron — and since tapping a new head jewellery designer, Francesca Amfitheatrof, it said.
