The new discoveries – a 9.74-carat blue and the 4.13-carat pink – come a few months after Lucara sold a 2.24-carat blue diamond from the same site for $US347,222 per carat.
A 9.46-carat blue diamond, named the Aven Blue, was sold for $US477,000 per carat in 2012.
The Karowe mine is best known for producing exceptionally large white diamonds. The second- and third-largest diamonds ever recovered were mined there: the 1,758-carat Sewelô diamond – unearthed in April this year and characterised as being near-gem/variable quality – and the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, which was mined in 2015 and sold to British jewellers Graff for $US53 million two years later.
Eira Thomas, CEO Lucara, said in a statement, “Lucara is extremely pleased with the recovery of these rare, sizeable, fancy coloured diamonds, which have the potential to contribute meaningful value to our regular production of large, high value type IIa diamonds.”
According to the Fancy Color Research Foundation, the price per carat for pink diamonds has risen by an average of 12 per cent per year since 2005. Blue diamonds have also seen increases in price per carat, though not to the same extent.
The discovery is particularly welcome; given that the world’s premier source of fancy colour diamonds – the Argyle mine in Western Australia – is set to close in 2020. The Rio Tinto-owned site produces an estimated 90 to 95 per cent of the world’s natural pink diamonds.
This year’s Argyle Tender – Rio Tinto’s annual travelling auction of its largest and most intense pink diamonds, which this year featured 64 stones – will close on 9 October. Arnaud Soirat, chief executive copper and diamonds Rio Tinto, told Reuters that two more Tenders could be held, depending on the mine’s output in the next few months.
Despite the mine coming to the end of its life, Soirat confirmed Rio Tinto would maintain its other diamond investments, based in Canada: a 60 per cent stake in the Diavik Diamond Mine, and a joint venture with Star Diamond Corp.
Reuters quoted Soirat as saying, “Diamonds is a business we like a lot. It’s a very high-margin business in line with our strategy of value over volume. It makes a lot of sense. We want to stay in the diamonds business.”
While yellow diamonds have been found at Diavik, no pink diamonds have as yet been unearthed there. De Beers’ Victor Mine in Ontario, Canada, had produced pink diamonds but closed earlier this year.
In addition to Australia, Canada and Botswana, pink diamonds have also been found in Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Tanzania.
More reading:
Australia’s diamond production to plummet 99 per cent with Argyle closure
Huge diamond found in Botswana
Inside the fascinating world of natural colour diamonds