An Australian miner, Lucapa Diamond Company, discovered a 170- carat pink diamond on Wednesday. Given the name ‘Lulo Rose’ it is designated to be the largest pink-coloured gemstone to be found in the last 300 years. This pink diamond was found by the company at the Lulo alluvial diamond mine located in the Lunda Norte region of Angola in Africa. The company that found the diamond functions in partnership between a state-run diamond miner Endiama and Rosas & Petalas, a private Angolan company.
According to the Gemological Institute of America, the Lucapa company miners are among the top ten miners in the world in terms of research in diamond production. Most of the stones recovered in the alluvial diamond mines are found from gravel and sand on the riverbeds.
As the managing director of the Lucapa Diamond Company, Stephen Wetherall, among 10,000 diamonds, only one is found coloured.
Wetherall said, “and only one in every 100 diamonds is greater than 10.8 carats in size, so recovering a 170- carat pink diamond means we are dealing with an extremely rare article.” He further says, “we have recovered pink diamonds before, but finding one this size is extremely rare.”
‘Lulo Rose’ is said to be put up for auction by the Angolan state diamond marketing company, Sodiam. But Wetherall has refused to state the estimated worth of the diamond as it is still undergoing examination and studied. This pink diamond has been labelled as ‘historic’ by the Angolan government.
“The record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining and demonstrate the potential and rewards for commitment and investment in our growing diamond mining industry”, stated Diamantino Azevedo, the minister of mineral resources, petroleum and gas in Angola.
In recent times, large coloured diamonds have acquired high values at auctions. “The De Beer’s “Cullinan Blue” diamond was 15.10-carat valued at $57.5 million at an auction by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong. Another diamond named, “Oppenheimer Blue”, of 14.62-carat estimated up to $70,000, was sold in 2016.
A 404.2-carat diamond discovered from the Lulo mines in February 2016, named the “4th February Stone” was sold for $16 million and is said to be Angola’s biggest diamond.
