LONDON (ShareCast) - Lonrho Mining has discovered an exceptional 61.30 carat yellow diamond at its Schmidtsdrift Mine in South Africa.

The huge stone is a fancy yellow perfect octahedron and is expected to yield a high value, said Lonrho Mining, which is 23% owned by Aim-listed Lonrho.

'This diamond is of extremely high quality and is expected to achieve a very high value. We are confident that the recently completed operational review at the Schmidtsdrift mine will continue to have a positive effect and hopefully yield further diamonds of this quality," chief executive Charles Mostert said.

Schmidtsdrift has yielded included 328 stones in excess of 5 carats in size in the past 12 years, including a rare 235 carat stone, two 66 carat stones and 25 stones between 15 and 50 carats in size.

The Schmidtsdrift mine - owned by Nare Diamonds (80%) and the Schmidtsdrift Communal Property Association (20%) - comprises six contiguous farms along the western bank of the Vaal River, with a combined area of 320km².

• News Channel