“Lulo Rose”
Largest rough pink diamond discovered in Angola in 300 years
The pink rough diamond “Lulo Rose” could be worth several million dollars
© Afp Photo / Lucapa Diamond Company Limited
Sensational find in southern Africa: The 170-carat rough diamond “Lulo Rose”, which miners recently discovered, should fetch an astronomical price.
Miners in Angola have unearthed a 170-carat pink diamond. The Australian company Lucapa Diamond Company, which operates the mine in northeastern Angola, announced on Wednesday that it is probably the largest pink rough diamond discovered worldwide in the past 300 years. Carat is the unit used to measure the weight of gemstones. A carat corresponds to 0.20 grams. Accordingly, the gemstone find from South Africa weighs about 34 grams.
The diamond was dubbed “The Lulo Rose” after the mine’s name. The Angolan government, a partner of the Lulo mine, also celebrated the find. According to them, it is a type IIa diamond – the category includes particularly rare and pure stones.
Diamond in the rough could lose half its weight
“Lulo Rose” is now to be sold through an international tender by Angola’s state diamond marketing company. Although the rough diamond still needs to be cut and polished to reach its full value – a process that can cause a stone to lose half its weight – it is likely to change hands for an astronomical price.
This record “continues to show Angola as a major player on the world diamond mining stage,” said Mineral Resources Minister Diamantino Azevedo. According to Lucapa, the largest recorded rough diamond in Angola to date was won in the Lulo mine in 2016, the white “Stone of February 4th” with 404 carats. The most expensive cut diamond of all time, the 59-carat “Pink Star”, was auctioned in Hong Kong in 2017 for $71.2 million (currently around €70 million).