A French tourist has unearthed a 7.46-carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, marking the largest find at the park since 2020. Julien Navas, from Paris, discovered the brown diamond on the surface of the park's 37.5-acre search area earlier this January.
Mr Navas, who rented a diamond-hunting kit, initially collected several minerals that caught his eye. After a day of digging, he brought his findings to the park's Diamond Discovery Centre, where staff identified the gem. The diamond is described as rounded, similar to a marble, and about the size of a gumdrop candy.
Heavy rainfall in the region, with over an inch of rain days before his visit, may have helped expose the diamond. Mr Navas plans to name the stone after his fiancée, Carine, and intends to have it cut into two pieces—one for her and one for his daughter.
This discovery is the eighth-largest diamond found at the park since it opened in 1972. The largest, a 16.37-carat diamond named the Amarillo Starlight, was discovered in 1975. Over 75,000 diamonds have been found at the park to date.
