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Petra Diamonds sells 121-carat stone for $6mln

Published: 08:22 01 Jul 2016 BST

121-carat white diamond sold by Petra
The 121-carat white diamond recovered at the Cullinan mine

Petra Diamonds Limited (LON:PDL) has sold its 121-carat white diamond for US$6mln as part of its June sales process in Johannesburg.

The stone was bought by a joint venture comprised of Nemesis International and Golden Yellow Diamonds, two large diamond manufacturing specialists.

It was recovered at the group’s Cullinan mine in South Africa, named for the famous 3,106 carat Cullinan Diamond found in 1905 which now forms part of the Crown Jewels.

The mine is one of the world’s most celebrated diamond mines and has produced around a quarter of all diamonds weighing more than 400 carats.

Last month, Petra's blue Cullinan Dream fetched over US$25mln at Christies auction house in New York. The 24-carat gem is the largest Fancy Blue diamond ever found.

Lucara Diamond Corp (TSE:LUC) failed to dazzle buyers with its Lesedi la Rona diamond when it went up for auction at Sotheby's in London earlier this week.

At 1,109 carats, the Lesedi la Rona is the largest uncut diamond in the world and makes Petra’s gem seem like a piece of gravel, but still the highest bid came in well below the reserve price of US$70mln.

Last month, Lucara sold another huge stone called The Constellation. The 813-carat stone fetched an auction price of US$63mln - around US$77,000 per carat - the new record for the sale of a rough diamond. 

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