Diamond News
Article and image fromMining Weekly
Petra to hold special tender to sell five blue diamonds
blue diamonds are so rare that most people working in the diamond industry have never even seen one.
The Cullinan mine is known as the world’s most important source of blue diamonds, as well as being the source of many other historic and magnificent stones, including the 3 106 ct Cullinan diamond, which was cut to form the 530 ct Great Star of Africa and the 317 ct Second Star of Africa, being the two largest diamonds in the British Crown Jewels.
Petra Diamonds has launched a special tender process for its Letlapa Tala Collection, which comprises five blue diamonds of significant color, clarity, size and heritage.The diamonds were recovered from the company’s Cullinan mine, in Gauteng. The five Type IIb blue diamonds in the collection range from 6.61 ct in size to 25.75 ct in size.
Type II diamonds contain no detectable nitrogen in their chemical structure and tend to display exceptional transparency. These Type IIb diamonds contain a small amount of boron, giving the diamonds their blue color.
Sotheby’s to auction an extraordinary gem:
a 102.39 ct. flawless oval white diamond
September 18, 2020
Auction house Sotheby’s is putting an extraordinary gem—a 102.39 ct. flawless oval white diamond—on the block, with bids starting virtually on Tuesday. The stone will be auctioned live on Oct. 5 in Hong Kong.
The D color, internally flawless diamond (pictured) is the second-largest oval diamond of its kind to be offered at auction. The first was the 118.28 carat diamond Sotheby’s Hong Kong sold in 2013 for roughly $30.6 million. Only seven D color internally flawless or flawless white diamonds of more than 100 carats have been sold at auction before this one.
The diamond will be offered as a stand-alone single lot and without a reserve (the winning bid will be the highest bid), which is highly unusual for a diamond of this size and caliber.
The live auction will be preceded by a series of by-appointment-only previews in Beijing, Shanghai, New York, Hong Kong, and Taipei, Taiwan.
Article and image from JCK Magazine
Image: The 117-carat diamond. (Lucapa Diamond Company)
Lucapa Unearths 117ct. Rough at Lulo Mine
Jan 9, 2020
Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered a 117-carat, gem-quality diamond from its Lulo alluvial mine in Angola.
The stone is the miner’s 14th over 100 carats from Lulo to date, and its first in that size category this year, it said Thursday. Lucapa found the stone in mining block 19, located between its high-value mining block 6 and mining block 8 portions of the deposit. That area was where the company recovered the 404-carat 4th February Stone, Angola’s largest diamond, which sold for $16 million in 2016.
“The recovery of this gem-quality, 117-carat diamond represents a positive start for Lulo in 2020 as we continue rolling out our plans to increase production and revenues this year,” said Lucapa CEO Stephen Wetherall.
At its next tender, the miner plans to sell an 84-carat, high-quality white diamond it recently recovered from Lulo.
Lucapa also withheld a 220-carat diamond it recovered in November from Mothae, as well as a 46-carat pink from Lulo. It plans to assess those for cutting and polishing in-house, it noted. During 2019, Lulo rough yielded $38.5 million, while Mothae stones garnered $16.5 million.
Article and image by Rapaport news
Golden Globe Awards 2020: The Best Jewelry of the Night
January 6, 2020
It was all about necklaces—masterfully crafted diamond-set ropes often punctuated with vividly colored gems—at the Golden Globe Awards Sunday night in Los Angeles. After years of big earrings ruling Hollywood red carpets, it was lovely to see them (and such fantastic ones, at that) slip into the spotlight.
Because nearly everyone wore a statement necklace, earrings shrunk in size. And the multi-pierced earring look rendered in high jewelry, which was pulled off by many, felt fresh—and just as luxe as the classic diamond drops so many others opted for. Charlize Theron and Cynthia Erivo, both of whom wore short diamond-and-colored-gemstone necklaces (see them below), carried off the several-small-earrings look especially well.
In terms of brands, Harry Winston, Bulgari, and Tiffany & Co. all had fabulous evenings: Tiffany placed legit statement pieces on Theron, Ansel Elgort, and newcomer Ana de Armas, who wore a stunning short Tiffany sapphire necklace (see below), among others. Bulgari enjoyed a show-stopping moment with Gwyneth Paltrow, who came in a sheer dress, her clavicles literally dripping in diamonds (see below).
But if there was a winner on the brand front last night, it was undoubtedly Harry Winston. The jeweler was responsible for Zoey Deutch’s stunning diamond-and-sapphire earrings and sautoir, which features a 58.69 ct. star sapphire cabochon (a look @jckmagazine followers on Instagram rated as their favorite of the night). And the atelier also made Jennifer Lopez’s diamond-and-emerald earrings, which racked up over 600 likes and dozens of positive comments in a post on our Instagram in under a few hours.
Article by JCK magazine
Diamonds That Created a Buzz in 2019
Dec 31, 2019
It was another big year for big diamonds, with several stones that raked in big bucks, set records, or otherwise made headlines. These were the stones that caught our attention in 2019.
Biggest money makers
1. Big blueIn November, Petra Diamonds sold a 20.08-carat, type IIb, gem-quality blue diamond recovered at its Cullinan mine in South Africa for $14.9 million, or $742,032 per carat, the upper end of analysts’ estimates.
2. Magnificent jewelA cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut, 10.64-carat, fancy-vivid-purplish-pink, internally flawless diamond ring topped Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels auction in October, selling for HKD 155.8 million ($19.9 million), or $1.9 million per carat.
3. Rock starAt Sotheby’s April sale in Hong Kong, the Manami Star, a rare oval brilliant-cut, 88.22-carat, D-color, type IIa, flawless diamond sold for $13.8 million, beating its high estimate of $12.7 million.
4. Lasting LegacyPetra sold a 425-carat, D-color, type II, gem-quality diamond for just under $15 million in May. The Legacy of the Cullinan Diamond Mine was bought through a partnership between Dubai-based Stargems Group and Belgium-based Choron.
Article and image by Rapaport news