The Okavango, a rare blue diamond weighing 20.46 carats, was discovered at the Orapa mine in Botswana.
The polished Okavango blue diamond. (Photo: Okavango Diamond Company).
The Okavango blue diamond is believed to have formed at a depth of 668 kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface. At this depth, boron is not common, yet the Okavango is rich in this element. It has a higher ratio of boron compared to nitrogen, which is a more common element in the environment and typically makes up a larger proportion of most diamonds, according to IFL Science.
“From the very first moment we saw the diamond, we knew it was something special,” said Marcus ter Haar, a representative of the Okavango Diamond Company. “Everyone who sees the 20-carat diamond is amazed by its unique color, which is unlike any blue gemstone ever found before. This is a one-of-a-kind discovery.”
According to the Okavango Diamond Company in Botswana, which discovered the gemstone, the rough Okavango blue diamond weighed 41.11 carats. After cutting and polishing, it was classified into the “Fancy Deep Blue” category, one of the highest color classifications that a blue diamond can achieve.
Blue diamonds like the Okavango can only be found in a few mines around the world with specific geological histories. Diamonds are typically colorless due to the combination of carbon atoms, but impurities can give them different colors. Colored diamonds account for only 0.01%, or 1 in 10,000, of the diamonds mined on Earth. Among these, blue, pink, green, purple, orange, and red are the rarest colors, while yellow and brown are somewhat more common.
