One of the world’s rarest and most coveted diamonds has been found at the Cullinan mine in Pretoria – and sent straight to London.

London-listed Petra Diamonds discovered the ice-blue, acorn-sized, 29,6 carat rock in their mine in Cullinan, which they have owned since 2008. The mine is the same site where the famous Cullinan diamond was found in 1905.

That same Culinan mine also proffered a 25,5-carat Cullinan blue diamond last year, which sold for $16,9 million, and a diamond found in 2008, known as the Star of Josephine, which was sold for $9,5 million.

CEO Johan Dippenaar was enthused about his latest discovery:

By some margin … this is probably the most significant stone we’ve ever, in terms of blue stones, recovered.

The stones in the past year or so are selling well above $2m per carat. That’s not my quote, that’s updates in the market.

Mr Dippenaar said the company would decide what to do with the diamond in the next week.

Brought to you by Mount Nelson

[Source : Business Day Live]