Petra Diamonds finds rare 25.5 carat blue stone

Petra Diamonds has recovered a 25.5 carat blue diamond at its famous Cullinan mine in South Africa that could be worth more than $10m (£6.5m).

 

The diamond is a rare blue colour and Petra says the stone is considered to be a “high quality gem diamond of top colour”.

The Cullinan mine is renowned for its large diamonds, with many stones discovered there now set within the Crown Jewels. These include the Great Star of Africa which was discovered at the mine in 1905.

“Blue diamonds are the rarest of all diamond and Cullinan is one of the largest producers of the stones,” Jeremy Dibb, an analyst at broker Canaccord said. “Cullinan produced an important blue stone following the acquisition by Petra Diamonds.”

This previously discovered 26.6 carat fancy vivid blue stone was cut into an internally flawless 7.03 carat polished stone.

This blue diamond was sold at auction at Southeby’s in May 2009 and achieving a record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction, hitting $9.49m or $1.35m per carat.

Coloured stones are in demand because of their rarity, with a pink stone breaking record at an auction at Christies in New York earlier this week. The 34.65 carat stone sold for $39.3m, or $1.13m per carat. Named the Princie Diamond, it was purchased by an anonymous collector bidding by telephone.
Petra Diamonds, a member of the FTSE 250 index, saw its shares rise 0.6p to 108p following the discovery.

Source: Telegraph