Canada-based Lucara Diamond Corporation sold the 812.77-carat, type IIa diamond for US$63.1 million (AU$86.8 m) – the equivalent of US$77,649 (AU$106,841) per carat – to Nemesis International DMCC, a rough diamond trading company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Lucara president and CEO William Lamb claimed the sale was “the highest price ever achieved for a rough diamond, breaking all records”.
The company entered an agreement with Nemesis International as part of the sale whereby it would retain 10 per cent of the net profit received from the polished stones cut from the rough diamond, which has been named The Constellation.
As previously reported by Jeweller, The Constellation was found in November last year at the Karowe mine in Botswana only days after the company discovered the 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona rough diamond.
The Lesedi La Rona, which is believed to be the second largest diamond ever unearthed, is expected to usurp The Constellation as the record holder for the highest price paid for a rough diamond when it goes under the hammer at a Sotheby’s auction in London on 29 June.
The auction house estimated that the stone, described as “roughly the size of a tennis ball”, would sell for in excess of US$70 million (AU$96.2 m). There were, however, suggestions that it could fetch a far higher price due to its significance as the acknowledged second largest rough diamond ever found.
The largest recorded gem-quality rough diamond discovered to date was the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, which was uncovered in the Cullinan mine in South Africa in 1905.
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