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Nearly 42-Carat Blue Diamond Discovered in South Africa
Petra Diamonds unearthed the 41.82-carat, Type IIb blue diamond at the Cullinan Mine.
The 41.82-carat, Type IIb blue diamond (Photo courtesy of Petra Diamonds Ltd.)
London—Petra Diamonds Ltd. has recovered a 41.82-carat blue diamond of “seemingly exceptional” color and clarity from South Africa’s famed Cullinan Mine.
Petra announced the recovery of the Type IIb diamond on Tuesday but provided few additional details.
The mining company, which recently refinanced and completed a rights issue to help it stay afloat, said it is still analyzing the stone and determining how it should be sold.
More announcements about how the diamond will be marketed will be made in due course, Petra added.
Petra Diamonds operates two diamonds mines in South Africa, Cullinan and Finsch.
The Cullinan Mine has yielded sizable blue diamonds in the past, including a collection of five weighing between 9.61 and 25.75 carats.
All discovered over the course of the same week in September 2020, Petra sold the stones to De Beers Group and Diacore in November 2020 for $40.36 million.
De Beers later incorporated them into an eight-stone collection of fancy intense and fancy vivid blue diamonds that ultimately did not perform well at auction in 2022.
Signs of weakness in the market for fancy color diamonds, which once seemed destined to keep increasing in price, have continued since then.
In November, Christie’s sold the “Mellon Blue,” a 9.51-carat fancy vivid blue, for $25.6 million, $7 million less than the diamond garnered at auction a decade ago.
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Petra announced the recovery of the Type IIb diamond on Tuesday but provided few additional details.
The mining company, which recently refinanced and completed a rights issue to help it stay afloat, said it is still analyzing the stone and determining how it should be sold.
More announcements about how the diamond will be marketed will be made in due course, Petra added.
Petra Diamonds said it is still analyzing this 41.82-carat blue diamond unearthed at its Cullinan Mine but believes it to be of “seemingly exceptional” color and clarity. (Photo courtesy of Petra Diamonds Ltd.)
Petra Diamonds operates two diamonds mines in South Africa, Cullinan and Finsch.
The Cullinan Mine has yielded sizable blue diamonds in the past, including a collection of five weighing between 9.61 and 25.75 carats.
All discovered over the course of the same week in September 2020, Petra sold the stones to De Beers Group and Diacore in November 2020 for $40.36 million.
De Beers later incorporated them into an eight-stone collection of fancy intense and fancy vivid blue diamonds that ultimately did not perform well at auction in 2022.
Signs of weakness in the market for fancy color diamonds, which once seemed destined to keep increasing in price, have continued since then.
In November, Christie’s sold the “Mellon Blue,” a 9.51-carat fancy vivid blue, for $25.6 million, $7 million less than the diamond garnered at auction a decade ago.
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