Photo: Lucapa Diamond Company/AFP Handout
The Lucapa Diamond Company Limited this week announced the recovery of the Lulo Rose – the largest Type IIa pink diamond unearthed at the Lulo alluvial mine in Angola.
Lucapa said in a statement it is a historic find as the Lulo Rose is “believed to be the largest pink diamond recovered in the last three hundred years“.
Diamantino Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas said this extraordinary find “continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining”.
Lucapa Diamond Company Limited Managing Director, Stephen Wetherall, said the Lulo Rose will be sold on auction in due course.
The diamond will likely become the most expensive gemstone ever sold. Wetherall said the team at Lucapa is extremely proud of the recovery.
Before it can be sold to the highest bidder, however, the Lulo Rose will be cut and polished. Even though the stone would lose nearly half its weight during this process, its true value would be determined.
Pink diamonds, similar to the Lulo Rose, have sold for astronomical prices in the past, such as the 59.6-carat Pink Star – the most expensive diamond ever sold.
Chow Tai Fook Enterprises bought the Pink Star for a staggering $71.2 million (approximately R1.2 billion) at a 2017 auction in Hong Kong.
Lucapa is the operator of the alluvial mining and kimberlite exploration activities at Lulo, a 3 000 square kilometre concession in Angola.
“Lulo is an exceptional alluvial resource and is truly a gift. We are once again made very proud by yet another historical recovery,” Wetherall said.
Apart from the alluvial mining and kimberlite exploration in Angola, Lucapa is also involved in the Merlin Diamond Project in Australia.
The company also owns the Mothae Kimberlite Mine in Lesotho, as well as the early-stage exploration Orapa Area F project in Botswana.
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