The stone is a D colour Type II diamond of exceptional size and clarity, and is a magnificent example of the large, high quality diamonds for which the mine is known.
About the Cullinan mine
Located at the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountain range, 37 kilometres north-east of Pretoria in South Africa, Cullinan is one of the world's most celebrated diamond mines.
It earned its place in history with the discovery of the Cullinan diamond in 1905, the largest rough gem diamond ever found at 3,106 carats. This iconic stone was cut into the two most important diamonds which form part of the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London - the First Star of Africa, which is mounted at the top of the Sovereign's Sceptre and which at 530 carats is the largest flawless cut diamond in the world, and the Second Star of Africa, a 317 carat polished diamond which forms the centrepiece of the Imperial State Crown.
Cullinan is renowned as a source of large diamonds and frequently yields diamonds larger than 10 carats. Furthermore, it has produced just under 800 stones weighing more than 100 carats, over 130 stones weighing more than 200 carats, and around a quarter of all diamonds weighing more than 400 carats.
In its history, the mine has produced four of the top 20 largest high quality gem diamonds: The Cullinan (3,106 carats rough), The Golden Jubilee (755 carats rough), The Centenary (599 carats rough) and The Cullinan Heritage (507 carats rough). The Cullinan Heritage was recovered by Petra in 2009 and sold in February 2010 for US$35.3 million, being the highest price on record for a rough diamond.
Other notable diamonds from Cullinan include The Premier Rose (353 carats rough), The Niarchos (426 carats rough) and the famous Taylor-Burton diamond (69 carats polished).
Cullinan is also renowned as the world's most important source of blue diamonds. Since Petra acquired the mine in 2008, it has produced a number of world-class blue diamonds including most recently a 29.6 carat diamond, which sold for US$25.6 million (or US$862,780 per carat) in February 2014, and a 122.5 carat blue diamond recovered in June 2014 which is currently on sales tender in South Africa (tender closes Friday 12 September 2014).
It would look good on the finger of a freckle faced girl.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it would.
DeleteThe fascinating thing is that, big as the Cullinan Diamond was, the geologists reckon it was a part - probably the smaller part - of a much larger stone from which it broke off. Ever since they found the Cullinan, they've been looking for the other part of the stone - it's got to be in there somewhere. If they ever find it, it's probably going to be in the multiple-thousands-of-carats range . . . and the valuation is going to be off the charts.
ReplyDeleteGet me a shovel and an airline ticket.
Delete