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LONDON. – Gem Diamonds discovered two diamonds bigger than 100 carats at its Lesotho mine, bringing the struggling miner a step closer to ending a drought of large stones. Gem Diamonds unearthed a 104,73 carat D colour Type IIa diamond and a 151,52 carat Type I yellow diamond at its Letseng mine, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Type IIa diamonds contain very little or no nitrogen atoms and are the most expensive stones.

Until now, Gem Diamonds had reported just one large discovery this year – the unearthing a 114-carat diamond in April.

The Letseng mine is renowned for the size and quality of its stones, with an average sales price of almost $2 000 a carat, the highest in the industry.

Yet the company has suffered recently from a lack of big finds and discovered just five stones bigger than 100 carats last year, fewer than half as many that it found in 2015.

Gem Diamonds gained 2,2 percent to 93,5 pence a share at 11:17 yesterday, paring this year’s decline to 15 percent.

Gem Diamonds, which fell to a record low in April, has also been hurt by weakening prices for lower-quality stones produced at its Ghaghoo mine in Botswana.

In February, the company said it was shutting the newly built operation because prices had fallen by one-third since 2015.

While the latest finds will offer some reassurance to investors, they’re not even close to the biggest found at Letseng.

In 2015, Gem Diamonds sold a 357-carat stone for $19.3m and in 2006 it found the 603-carat Lesotho Promise.

Last week, 27 percent of shareholders voted against the re-election of chief executive officer Clifford Elphick. -Fin24.