A 170-carat pink diamond discovered in Angola may be the largest gemstone found in 300 years, according to Australian miner Lucapa Diamond Company.
Named the “Lulo Rose,” the diamond was found at the Lulo alluvial diamond mine in Angola’s Lunda Norte region in Africa, the company said in a statement Wednesday, with its partners, mining of state diamonds Endiama and Rosas & Petalas. , a private Angolan company.
Angola’s mines are among the top ten diamond producers in the world, according to the Gemological Institute of America, which researches diamond production. In alluvial diamond mining, gravel and sand stones found in riverbeds are recovered.
Only one in 10,000 diamonds found is colored, according to Stephen Wetherall, managing director of the Lucapa Diamond Company.
“And only one in 100 diamonds is larger than 10.8 carats, so to recover a 170-carat pink diamond means we’re dealing with an extremely rare item,” Wetherall told CNN.
“We’ve recovered pink diamonds before, but finding one of this size is extremely rare,” he said.
The “Lulo Rose” is still being appraised to determine its approximate cost before being sold at auction. Credit: Lucapa Diamond Company
The pink gemstone is expected to be auctioned by Angola’s state-owned diamond marketing company, Sodiam. Wetherall declined to give an estimate of its value because the diamond is still being examined and valued.
The Angolan government has also celebrated the “historic” recovery of the jewel.
“The record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as a major player on the global diamond mining stage and demonstrates the potential and rewards for commitment and investment in our growing diamond mining industry” , said Diamantino Azevedo, Minister of Angola. mineral resources, oil and gas.
Large colored diamonds have fetched record prices at auction in recent years. Last April, the 15.10-carat “The De Beers’ Cullinan Blue” diamond sold for $57.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong. It just narrowly missed the record set by the 14.62-carat “Oppenheimer Blue” diamond, which fetched an additional $70,000 when it sold in 2016.
According to Lucapa, Angola’s largest diamond, dubbed the “February 4 Stone,” was recovered from the Lulo mine in February 2016. The 404.2-carat stone sold for $16 million.