A Blue Diamond Discovered Recently Is So Exceptionally Large, This Mining Co’s Stocks Leapt

Diamonds are rare, and big diamonds are even rarer. But a South African mining company recently discovered a diamond so beautiful and rare that its stock prices immediately started to rise.

Petra Diamonds has discovered an extremely rare and large blue diamond. The diamond was discovered at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. But the more profitable news for the company was the reaction stockholders had when they heard the news.

Shortly after making the announcement, stocks of the company increased by 6 percent. What’s equally interesting is the fact that the stone is yet to be evaluated; assessment of its value hasn’t been carried out by gemologists. As is the norm, diamonds aren’t assessed by the gradual increase in their weightage, which is measured in carats. Diamonds become increasingly more expensive as their size and other parameters, such as cut, color, clarity and brilliance, are determined. Incidentally, this blue diamond dwarfs the one discovered earlier in the year.

The diamond is presently in its uncut form, Petra Diamonds shared in an official statement. The company explained, “The stone will require further analysis in order to assess its potential value and upon completion of this process, Petra will be in a position to evaluate its optimal route to market.

Interestingly, this diamond has gained such a level of importance from a financial perspective that company has further clarified their intentions. “The diamond will, therefore, not be sold before the end of the company’s current financial year (June 30),” reported the Daily Mail.

Blue diamonds are even rarer than regular clear diamonds. The blue hue is because of small traces of boron trapped in the carbon structure during formation. The Cullinan mine, bought by Petra Diamonds in 2008, is regarded as the most important source of blue diamonds.

In its current uncut state, the diamond weighs about 122.52 carat. Diamonds is big, even the clear ones, are exceedingly hard to find. Despite its impressive size, the diamond is a dwarf when compared to the largest diamond ever discovered. Coincidentally unearthed from the same mine, the largest diamond ever discovered weighed 3,106 carats. But this diamond was cut in two for the British Monarchy. The atrocity was committed during the early 20th century. Both the pieces are now part of the British Crown Jewels.

Though it is difficult to accurately value the blue diamond at the moment, a mere 5.30-carat deep-blue diamond was sold for £6.2 million ($9.5 million, 7.3 million euros) at a London auction last year. One can only guess what a 122.52 carat blue diamond will fetch.

[Image Credit | Petra Diamonds]