12:14 PM EDT, 04/25/2019 (MT Newswires) -- Lucara Diamond (LUC.TO) was up 10% after the company on Thursday said it recovered 1,759 carat diamond at its Karowe mine in Botswana, the largest ever found in the country.

The company said the stone was the second weighing more than 1,000 carats at the mine and one of 12 weighing more than 300 carats. Eleven of those 12 stones have put sold, with the company receiving more than US$158 million.

"Karowe has now produced two diamonds greater than 1,000 carats in just four years, affirming the coarse nature of the resource and the likelihood of recovering additional large, high quality diamonds in the future, particularly as we mine deeper in the orebody ... the source of both of our record breaking, +1,000 carat diamonds," chief executive Eira Thomas said in a release.

The company said the big new find has been "characterized as near gem quality" and it is continuing to analyze the gem.

Lucara shares were last seen up $0.16 to $1.74 on the TSX Venture Exchange after earlier touching $1.76.

Price: 1.67, Change: +0.09, Percent Change: +5.70