Lucapa Diamond Company said the Lulo diamond mine in Angola just yielded its largest gem-quality colored diamond to date.
Lucapa and its partners in the mine announced the recovery of the stone, a 46-carat pink, last week.
While the size of the polished diamond, or diamonds, that result will depend on any inclusions and the shape it ultimately takes, the typical yield for a pink diamond is 45 to 55 percent of the rough weight, meaning this 46-carat rough could produce a natural pink diamond between 21 and 25 carats.
The 46-carat pink tops the 43-carat yellow diamond found in January and the 39-carat pink recovered at the mine last year.
The stone, along with other big diamonds found at Lulo, came from mining block 4. The area is located close to the mine’s treatment plant and is planned for resource delineation, meaning drilling and sampling, this year, Lucapa said.
Western Australia-based Lucapa operates the Lulo Diamond Project in partnership with Endiama, the state-owned diamond mining company, and private firm Rosas & Petalas. It started exploring in Angola and 2008 and began mining in January 2015.
