Cullinan South Africa – The Diamond Certification Laboratory of Australia (DCLA)

Collection of Blue Diamonds to Fetch Over $70M

Sotheby’s will sell a group of eight fancy-blue diamonds from De Beers across its global Magnificent Jewels auctions, expecting the set to bring in more than $70 million.

The stones are cut in various shapes and range from 1.22 to 11.29 carats, with a total weight of 32.09 carats, Sotheby’s said last week. The polished originates from five rough blues that De Beers and Switzerland-based manufacturer Diacore purchased jointly from Petra Diamonds in November 2020. Diacore cut and polished those stones into eight diamonds over the past two years.

Sotheby’s will offer three stones from the eight-piece group, called The De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection, this year. The first, a cushion brilliant-cut, 5.53-carat, fancy-vivid blue diamond will go under the hammer at the Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale in Geneva on November 9, with a high estimate of $15 million. Meanwhile, the December 7 Magnificent Jewels sale in New York will feature a cushion brilliant-cut, 3.24-carat, fancy-vivid blue, internally flawless diamond estimated at up to $8 million. That jewel will be joined by a cushion-cut, 2.08-carat, fancy-intense-blue diamond with an upper price tag of $1.5 million.

“I have remained in awe of the De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection since the first moments I set eyes on it,” said Olivier Wagner, head of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auctions in Geneva. “The market for colored diamonds and precious gemstones has never been stronger. [The diamonds] will, I am sure, captivate all collectors of exceptional gemstones.”

Sotheby’s will sell the remaining five diamonds at its spring 2023 Magnificent Jewels auctions. Those include a step-cut, 11.29-carat, fancy-vivid-blue estimated at up to $50 million; a step-cut, 4.13-carat, fancy-intense-blue expected to go for up to $3.5 million; and a cushion brilliant-cut, 3.10-carat, fancy-vivid-blue diamond with a high price of $5 million.

In April, Sotheby’s sold another De Beers blue diamond: a step-cut, 15.10-carat, fancy-vivid-blue, internally flawless stone that went for $57.5 million in Hong Kong.

Source: Diamonds.net

Petra Diamonds finds 342-carat rough at Cullinan mine

South Africa’s Petra Diamonds has recovered a 342.92-carat Type IIa white rough at its iconic Cullinan mine.

The company said the diamond is “exceptional” quality, in terms of both its colour and clarity, and that it will likely be sold at the September tender.

Petra fetched in March $12.2 million for a 299.3-carat Type IIA white diamond. That meant it obtained $40,701 per carat, which exceeds the $34,386/ct received for the 424.89-carat “Legacy of the Cullinan Diamond Mine” in May 2019.

Type II diamonds are found less frequently and are more valuable than Type I diamonds, as they have no measurable nitrogen impurities. This gives them exceptional transparency and brilliance.

Cullinan is known as the birthplace of the famed 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, which was cut to form the 530-carat Great Star of Africa.

The operation also yielded the 317-carat Second Star of Africa.

They are the two largest diamonds in the British Crown Jewels.

Cullinan is known as the world’s most important source of blue diamonds, such as the 39.34-carat stone Petra found in April and which sold for $40.2 million earlier this month. It was the company’s highest price ever for a single stone.

Source: Mining.com

Petra to sell blue diamonds recovered at Cullinan

A 20.08-carat Type IIb blue diamond recovered at Cullinan.

Petra Diamonds (LON: PDL) announced the launching of a special tender process for the Letlapa Tala Collection, which comprises five blue diamonds sourced from the Cullinan mine in South Africa.

Cullinan is known as the world’s most important source of blue diamonds, as well as being the place of birth of the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, which was cut to form the 530-carat Great Star of Africa and the 317-carat Second Star of Africa, being the two largest diamonds in the British Crown Jewels.

In a press release, Petra said that the name of the new collection actually means ‘blue rock’ in Northern Sotho (commonly known as Pedi), the predominant language spoken in the Cullinan area.

CULLINAN IS KNOWN AS THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT SOURCE OF BLUE DIAMONDS

The collection consists of five Type IIb blue diamonds of 25.75, 21.25, 17.57, 11.42 and 9.61 carats, respectively. Type II diamonds contain no detectable nitrogen in their chemical structure and tend to display exceptional transparency. Type IIb stones contain a small amount of boron, which is what determines their blue colour.

“Blue diamonds are so rare that most people working in the diamond industry have never even seen one,” the media release states. “There are no official statistics on their recovery, so it is therefore even more unusual that these five spectacular stones were all recovered within the space of one week’s production in September 2020.”

According to Petra, this is likely to be the first time that five blue rough diamonds have ever been offered for sale at one time, with buyers being offered the chance to bid either on individual stones, more than one, or for the entire collection.

The Letlapa Tala gems will be available for viewings in Antwerp from October 25 to November 1; Hong Kong from November 5 to November 10; and New York from November 16 to November 20, 2020.

Source: Mining.com

Graff pays $53m for historic diamond

Laurence Graff of Graff Jewellers has purchased the 1,109 carat Lesedi La Rona rough Diamond.

Discovered by Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp at the Botswana mine.

The diamond sold for USD $53 million.

The 1,109 gem is the world’s largest High quality rough diamond to be discovered in more than a century and the largest rough diamond in existence today.

Second only to the Cullinan which weighed 3,106.75 carats, and was discovered at the Premier No. 2 mine in , South Africa, on 26 January 1905.