At a Glance

The gem-quality stone was pulled from a mine in Canada's Northwest Territories.The mining company's CEO says it's a "miracle" the stone wasn't crushed in the mining process.The previous largest diamond found in North America was found at the same mine in 2015.

A 552-carat yellow diamond discovered at a Canadian mine is said to be the largest gem-quality stone ever found in North America.

The stone, the size of a chicken egg, was found at the Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories in October. Dominion Diamond Mines and Rio Tinto Group own the mine, which is about 800 miles northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

"A diamond of this size is completely unexpected for this part of the world and marks a true milestone for diamond mining in North America," Dominion Diamond Mines said in a statement.

Dominion Chief Executive Officer Shane Durgin told Bloomberg a diamond of this size was not crushed during the mining process.

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Durgin would not guess at the worth of the diamond, which is about 1.5 inches around and 2 inches long.

“We can label it fancy yellow, but beyond that, due to its rough nature and the abrasions received through the processing facility, that’s all we can comment on,” Durgin told Bloomberg. “It’s very hard to give a ballpark estimate. It all depends on, again, the cutting and the resulting stone it ends up.”

The previous largest diamond found in North America was also discovered at the Diavik mine. That was the 187.7-carat Diavik Foxfire found in 2015.

In June 2016, an investor bought the uncut diamond at auction and , according to Smithsonian.com. It was on display at the Harry Winston Gallery until February 2017.

The Firefox was later turned into a pair of earrings weighing a total of 77.7 carats. The earrings sold at a Christie's auction for more than $1.5 million earlier this month, Bloomberg reported.

As for the new stone, Dominion said it expects to select a partner who will cut and polish it.

The largest diamond ever unearthed was the , found in South Africa in 1905.