Diacolor, which stands for diamonds and coloured Stones, recently acquired a 5,655-carat emerald described as having “remarkable clarity and a perfectly balanced golden green hue”. The gem was unearthed at the Kagem mine, the world’s largest emerald mine. In a rare honor, Gemfields chose to name the gem as “Inkalamu,” which means “lion” in the Zambian Bemba language.
The company says the name is in honor of the work carried out by two of Gemfields’ conservation partners, the Zambian Carnivore Program and the Niassa Carnivore Project in Mozambique. Gemfields has three-year philanthropic sponsorships with each organization in order to aid them in wildlife conservation, promote community development and stem the problem of poaching by developing alternative livelihoods. The company further said it would donate 10% of the sale proceeds of the emerald to the two organizations. “These partners work tirelessly to smooth the relationship between Africa’s carnivores and local communities across vast, remote and challenging areas,” the company said.
Gemfields London-based gemologist, Elena Basaglia, says “it’s difficult to estimate how many individual gems will be cut from Inkalamu, but the cutting expertise of Gemfields’ auction partners will mean that this gemstone will make its mark in the history books of exceptional gemstones.”
The Lion emerald will benefit from the Gübelin Gem Lab’s “Provenance Proof” nanotechnology, whereby nano-sized particles encoded with the mine-of-origin will allow identification of the gemstone’s origin.
