Miners in Angola have unearthed a massive pink diamond that may be the largest gem of its kind found in the past 300 years.
Named the “Lulo Rose,” after the Lulo mine in northeastern Angola where it was found, the diamond weighs in at 170 carats. This makes it just a smidge smaller than the 182 carat Daria-i-Noor diamond which is considered the largest pink diamond in the world. The Daria-i-Door is presumed to have come from the Kollur mine in India and was uncovered some time before 1739. It now resides in the Iranian National Jewels collection in Tehran.
The new Lulo Rose diamond was found by the Lucapa Diamond company which has a 40 percent interest in Lulo and one other diamond mine, Mothae, in Angola.
Since 2015, the Lulo mining project has uncovered 27 diamonds weighing more than 100 carats, including the largest diamond ever found in Angola: the 404-carat “4th February Stone,” which sold for US$16 million in 2016.
The Lulo Rose, the fifth-largest diamond found at Lulo, is expected to sell for an even higher price.
Lucapa is a Western Australian-based company and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), with a secondary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Lulo and Mothae both produce large and high-value diamonds, generating more than 75 percent of their revenues from the recovery of +4.8 carat stones. Diamond production has been scaled up at both mines.
Lucapa has also recently acquired the Merlin tenements and assets in the Northern Territory of Australia. Merlin is well known for being Australia’s large stone producer with significant exploration potential. It consists of two tenements – a 24km2 tenement with a mining lease, and a 283km2 exploration tenement and mining lease, both approximately 720km south-east of Darwin. The mining lease contains 11 previously discovered kimberlite pipes in three kimberlite clusters.
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