The Millennium Star is a diamond owned by
De Beers
De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
. At 203.04
carats (40.608 g), it is the world's second largest known
top-color (grade D, i.e. colourless), internally and externally flawless, pear-shaped diamond.
The diamond was discovered in the
Mbuji-Mayi
Mbuji-Mayi or Mbujimayi (formerly Bakwanga) is a city and the capital of Kasai-Oriental Province in the south-central Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the second largest city in the country, following the capital Kinshasa but ahead of Lubumba ...
district of
Zaire
Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...
in 1990 in
alluvial
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
deposits; uncut, it was 777 carats (155.4 g). It was purchased by De Beers during the height of the country's Civil War that took place in the early to mid-nineties. It took over three years for workers of the
Steinmetz Diamond Group Steinmetz/Steynmets is a German surname, meaning 'stonemason'. It may refer to:
People
* Ádám Steinmetz (born 1980), Hungarian water polo player
* Andrew Steinmetz (born 1965), Canadian writer
* Barnabás Steinmetz (born 1975), Hungarian water p ...
to produce the classic pear form. The cutting was done using lasers.
It was first displayed in October 1999 as the centerpiece of the De Beers Millennium diamond collection. The collection also includes eleven blue diamonds totalling 118 carats (23.6 g) and
The Heart of Eternity. They were displayed at London's
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millenn ...
over 2000. There was an attempt on 7 November 2000 to steal the collection (see
Millennium Dome raid
The Millennium Dome raid was an attempted robbery of the Millennium Dome's diamond exhibition in Greenwich, South East London occurring on 7 November 2000. A local gang planned to ram-raid the De Beers diamond exhibition which was being held in ...
), but the Metropolitan Police discovered the plot and arrested the robbers before their escape.
Crime journalist Kris Hollington wrote a book called ''Diamond Geezers'' () about the attempted theft. The book also features a detailed history of the Millennium Star.
The largest cut white (D) diamond by weight is the 1991 modified heart-shaped
Centenary Diamond
The De Beers Centenary Diamond is, at , the third-largest diamond to have been produced in the Premier Mine. Among top-color diamonds, only the Cullinan I and II are larger than the Centenary diamond. The Centenary Diamond is rated in color ...
.
See also
*
List of diamonds
Diamond (gemstone), Diamonds become famous typically for some combination of their size, color and quality. Diamonds occur naturally in many different colors, so the largest diamond of a particular color may not be large in absolute terms, but it ...
References
http://www.rivieratimes.com
External links
{{portalbar, London
Individual diamonds
De Beers
2000 in London
Diamonds originating in Zaire