New rare Gauteng diamond is eight times bigger than record breaking blue diamond
Congratulations to the lucky lady who gets to call this Cullinan diamond her best friend.
We all know how the saying goes: "Diamonds are a girl's best friend."
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However, Petra Diamonds Limited can claim that they have the biggest, rarest best friend of them all.
What we mean of course is that Petra Diamonds has officially recovered its third major find since buying the Cullinan mine in Gauteng from De Beers in 2008 for R1-billion.
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While that may seem like quite an amount, from that day they have found at least eight other notable diamonds which has earned them R3-billion.
The Cullinan mine is best known for being the home of the Cullinan Diamond, which holds the record for being the biggest diamond at 3,106.75-carats and forms part of the Crown Jewels. This year alone it has produced three noteworthy diamonds.
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In April of this year, Petra had found the 39.34 carat Type IIb blue diamond, which set a new record for the highest price for a single stone ever recovered and sold by a mining company. The blue diamond was sold for R595-million, but now it seems like this record might be broken again.
Less than two weeks after this sale, Petra has now recovered a 342.92 carat Type IIa white diamond and it is eight times bigger than the blue diamond.
Petra Diamonds Limited is pleased to announce that it has recovered a 342.92 carat Type IIa white diamond of exceptional quality in terms of both its colour and clarity at the Cullinan mine in South Africa.
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While the white diamond is bigger, it is not as rare as the blue diamond, with a previous white diamond of 299.3-carat being sold for R180-million this year.
Blue diamonds are some of the rarest in the world and get their colour from boron impurities, whereas Type II diamonds have no nitrogen "impurities".
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These Type II diamonds are still considerably harder, larger, and rarer than Type I diamonds. Only 1% to 2% of the world's natural diamonds are Type II diamonds.
Petra has confirmed that the uncut gem is set to be sold in September this year.
After which it will hopefully get to shine bright!
Main image courtesy of iStock
All images of the Cullinan diamonds provided by Petra Diamonds Limited