In 2017, a 59.60 carat pink diamond sold for $71.2 million.
A 170-carat pink diamond from Angola is the largest colored gemstone found in 300 years, per Australia’s Lucapa Diamond Company.
Miners recently found it in the central African country, which is one of the top sources of diamonds in the world. In fact, it’s the fifth largest gem found in the Lulo mine, which is operated by Lucapa Diamond Company and the Angolan government.
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Dubbed the “Lulo Rose,” the gem is under the type 2a diamond category—meaning it has few to no impurities.
“This record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage,” Angola’s minister of mineral resources, Diamantino Azevedo, said in a statement.
Extremely rare
According to CNN, the Lulo Rose will be up for auction. However, its current value is still being approximated. Only one in 10,000 diamonds discovered are colored, Lucapa Diamond Company’s managing director Steven Wetherall told the publication.
“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 continued. “We have recovered pink diamonds before, but finding one this size is extremely rare.”
In the past, an oval mixed-cut fancy vivid pink diamond weighing 59.60 carats sold for $71.2 million in 2017. Auctioned by Sotheby’s, the piece is named “Pink Star.” Meanwhile, in 2016, the 15.10 carat “The De Beers’ Cullinan Blue” diamond was sold for $57.5 million by the same auction house in Hong Kong.
Given the Lulo Rose weighs 170 carats, it will likely be the most expensive diamond ever sold.
Banner photo from @sinembargomx on Instagram.
