It was found in May and kept quiet all summer. On September 30, 2026, Namibia’s President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah unveiled Owishi, a 176.29-carat rough diamond recovered at Namdeb’s Southern Coastal Mine near Oranjemund, the largest diamond of its kind the mine has produced in two decades.
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At a glance
- The stone: Owishi, a natural rough diamond of 176.29 carats, about 35 grams.
- Found: May 10, 2026, at Namdeb’s Southern Coastal Mine in Oranjemund, on Namibia’s southern Atlantic coast.
- Unveiled: September 30, 2026, by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah at the Namibia Diamond Trading Company building in Windhoek.
- The name: an Oshiwambo word for a rare underground honey that is famously hard to find.
- Value: no official valuation; industry estimates reported in the press range from about $5 million to more than $25 million.
- What next: no sale, cutting or display plans had been announced at the time of writing.
What is the Owishi diamond?
Owishi is a 176.29-carat natural rough diamond recovered on May 10, 2026, at the Southern Coastal Mine operated by Namdeb in Oranjemund, according to Informanté. Namdeb Holdings is owned in equal shares by the Namibian government and De Beers, as The Rio Times notes. The stone stayed confidential for more than four months before the President presented it in Windhoek, where she called it “the largest diamond of its kind to be discovered at the mine in the past two decades,” as reported by The Namibian.
What has not been published matters as much as what has. No color grade, clarity description or diamond type has been released, and none of the reports we read includes an official valuation. The phrase “of its kind” is worth reading carefully: it frames Owishi as a record for this coastal mine over twenty years, not as the largest diamond ever found in Namibia.
Why is it called Owishi?
In Oshiwambo, one of Namibia’s most widely spoken languages, owishi is a rare honey found underground, prized precisely because it is so difficult to locate, explains the Windhoek Observer. In our view, it is a lovely choice. Great diamonds have long carried names drawn from places, owners or houses; this one carries a word from the land itself, and a quiet metaphor for something sweet, hidden and found only with patience.
How much is a 176-carat rough diamond worth?
Nobody outside the sorting room can say yet. Industry estimates cited by the Windhoek Observer and The Rio Times run from about $5 million to more than $25 million, a wide range that reflects how much depends on what is inside the crystal: clarity, color and, above all, the polished yield, meaning how much finished diamond a cutter can recover from the rough.
That last point is the one buyers often underestimate. A large rough crystal routinely loses well over half its weight on the wheel, and a planner may choose one important stone or several smaller ones depending on where inclusions sit. Size alone sets nothing. For perspective, Lucara’s 2,492-carat crystal from Botswana’s Karowe mine, announced in 2024, is many times larger than Owishi, yet the value of any rough is decided by quality, not by headline weight.
Why are Namibian diamonds so prized? A short history
Namibia’s diamond story began in 1908, when a railway worker, Zacharias Lewala, picked up a bright stone near Kolmanskop, close to Lüderitz. The colonial administration soon closed a vast stretch of the southern coast as the Sperrgebiet, the “forbidden area,” reserved for mining. In 1920 Ernest Oppenheimer brought the coastal operations together as Consolidated Diamond Mines, and in the 1930s the company built Oranjemund at the mouth of the Orange River as its own town.
Geology explains the reputation. Over millions of years, the Orange River carried diamonds from the interior of southern Africa to the Atlantic, and the long, tumbling journey tended to break up flawed crystals while the strongest survived. The result is a coast known for an unusually high share of gem-quality stones. After independence, Namdeb was formed in 1994 as the equal partnership between the state and De Beers, and today much of the country’s production comes from the sea floor through Debmarine Namibia, while land operations such as the Southern Coastal Mine work the old beaches.
A river spent millions of years choosing these diamonds; the cutter will decide what Owishi becomes.
What does the find mean for the natural diamond market?
The timing is delicate. Natural diamond prices have been under pressure from laboratory-grown stones and softer demand, a shift we traced in De Beers’ 2026 price resets, and The Rio Times notes that Anglo American is selling its majority stake in De Beers, leaving questions about Namibia’s long-term mining partner. The President used the unveiling to call for more cutting, polishing and jewelry manufacturing at home. “May this discovery renew our commitment to ensuring that the wealth beneath our soil becomes a source of shared prosperity for all Namibians,” she said, per The Namibian.
Brent Eiseb, who leads the Namibia Diamond Trading Company, framed the moment in human terms, describing a diamond’s value as reaching beyond its appearance to the lives and opportunities it creates, as reported by Mining & Energy. In our view, a named, documented stone from a celebrated source is exactly the kind of story the natural diamond trade now leans on: rarity and origin that a laboratory cannot reproduce. For the wider picture, see our guide to lab-grown versus natural diamond prices.
For the Collector
- Not for sale, yet: no sale route, tender or cutting plan has been announced. Watch for word from Namdeb, De Beers or the Namibian government on whether Owishi will be sold, cut locally or kept.
- What will drive its value: color, clarity, crystal shape and polished yield. Until a grade is published, any price you read is an estimate, not a valuation.
- Buying a Namibian diamond today: origin is a genuine point of interest. Ask the jeweler for documented country of origin in writing and an independent grading report; our 4Cs guide explains what to check.
- Keep perspective on large stones: headline results for exceptional diamonds reflect demand at one moment; past prices do not predict future value, and no diamond is a guaranteed store of value.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the Owishi diamond?
Owishi weighs 176.29 carats in the rough, about 35 grams, making it the largest diamond of its kind found at Namdeb’s Southern Coastal Mine in twenty years.
Where was the 176-carat diamond found?
It was recovered on May 10, 2026, at Namdeb’s Southern Coastal Mine near Oranjemund in southern Namibia, and unveiled in Windhoek on September 30, 2026.
How much is the Owishi diamond worth?
There is no official valuation; industry estimates reported in the press range from about $5 million to more than $25 million, depending on its quality and polished yield.
Will the Owishi diamond be sold at auction?
No sale or auction has been announced at the time of writing, and officials have not said whether it will be sold, cut in Namibia or kept.
Sources: Informanté · The Namibian · Windhoek Observer · Mining & Energy · The Rio Times
