Alrosa revealed a 118.91 carat gem quality diamond that is recovered from its “International” mine, which is located close to the town of Mirny in the Sakha Republic of the Russian Federation. The company said that stone, which was found on April 16, is the largest gem-quality diamond on found at the International pipe in the past two years. A similar, large gem-quality diamond, weighing 109.61 carats, was mined here in the summer of 2017.
The newly mined light yellow rough diamond has “salient edges, one of them with cleavage, and small inclusions in the central zone,” the firm said in a news release
“This crystal is unique as it has a large clean area despite the inclusions in the center – this makes it a gem-quality diamond. Well known hallmarks of the diamonds from the International kimberlite pipe are regular shapes and purity. That is exactly the pipe that most often brings ALROSA regular shape octahedrons with smooth edges,” explained Evgeny Agureev, Member of the Management Board, Director of the United Selling Organization at ALROSA.
The diamond was mined right on the eve of the launch of Zarya a new deposit of ALROSA at Aykhal mining and processing plant. The company considers assigning the name “Zarya” to the new extracted crystal in honor of the launch event.