During the summer of 2024, Lucara Diamond, which operates the Karowe mine in Botswana, made two major diamond discoveries. The first weighs 2,488 carats and the other 1,094 carats. As usual, the Canadian company sought input from the Botswana community to name these diamonds.

Lucara Diamond revealed on December 17 that the larger diamond would be called “Motswedi,” which means “water source” or “underground water flow,” and the smaller one would be named “Seriti,” meaning “aura” or “presence.”

Lucara named the two stones in Setswana, a Botswanese dialect. It found the names through a public competition organized last month. The company asked the Botswanese people to suggest names for the jewels–weighing   2,488 and 1,094 carats, respectively. The diamonds were found at the Karowe mine. 

The competition received more than 39,000 entries. These were examined by a panel of judges including including Prof. Thapelo Joseph Otlogetswe, a renowned linguistics expert from the University of Botswana.  The winner of the name "Motswedi" for the larger diamond will receive 100,000 pulas (approximately $7,300), while the winner of the name "Seriti" for the smaller diamond will get 50,000 pulas (about $3,660). 

“Lucara is committed to ensuring that both stones have a positive and enduring impact for Botswana and is proud to have once again invited the people of Botswana to choose the names of two historic diamonds recovered at the Karowe Mine,” stated the company.

The Motswedi diamond was found in August, followed by the discovery of the Seriti diamond in September. Lucara has not yet announced how it plans to sell these extraordinary diamonds. For context, in 2015, the company sold the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona, also from the Karowe mine and then the second-largest diamond ever found, for $53 million. Additionally, an 813-carat diamond from the same mine was sold for $63 million. 

This article was initially published in French by Emiliano Tossou

Edited in English by Ola Schad Akinocho