Petra Diamonds has announced the recovery of a 507.5 carat white diamond at the Cullinan mine in South Africa.
According to the company, the “spectacular gemstone” was recovered on September 24 and is currently with experts for analysis.
“Initial examinations indicate that it is of exceptional colour and clarity, and most likely to be a Type II diamond. Further details, including colour grading and clarity, will be released once the diamond has undergone appropriate analysis.”
The diamond was recovered alongside three other special white stones of similar colour and clarity in the same production run: another very large stone of 168 carats and two other stones of 58.50 and 53.30 carats.
At 507 carats (just over 100 grams) the diamond, which has yet to be named, is considered to be amongst the top 20 largest high quality rough diamonds ever found worldwide and ranks alongside other illustrious diamonds recovered at the celebrated Cullinan mine.
Cullinan has a special place in the history of diamonds as the source of the world’s largest gem diamond ever recovered, the ‘Cullinan’, at 3106 carats rough. It has also produced a further two of the world’s largest diamonds, the Golden Jubilee at 755 carats rough and the Centenary at 599 carats rough, and many other famous gems including the Taylor-Burton (69 carats polished).