Rare Blue Diamond from South Africa Goes Up for Sale with Worldwide Viewings

Petra Diamonds has announced the final sales process for a rare and exceptional blue diamond. The 39.34 carat Type IIb blue diamond was recovered at the famous Cullinan Diamond Mine in South Africa on 1 April 2021.

If you have a few hundred million rands and are keen to purchase (or at least see the diamond), viewings are being held around the world:

• Antwerp: 15-18 June 2021
• Dubai: 22-23 June 2021
• Hong Kong: 29-30 June 2021
• New York: 7-9 July 2021

Interested buyers can bid online. The tender on Petra’s online bidding platform is planned to close on or around Monday 12th July 2021 at different times (depending on the city).

Previously, the 12 carat polished Blue Moon of Josephine (cut from a slightly smaller 29 carat rough blue diamond from the Cullinan Mine) sold for US$48.5 million (about R357.5-million) in 2015, representing a remarkable +US$4 million per carat (US$20 million per gram), which remains the world record price per carat ever paid for a diamond… but this could be broken with the sale of this latest 39.34 carat blue diamond.

Type IIb blue diamonds are so rare that their age has not been established. Recent studies on minerals trapped inside these diamonds imply that they are amongst the deepest-formed diamonds ever found, created at depths in excess of 500km below the Earth’s surface. The boron that gives their blue colour has been linked to seawater suggesting that these diamonds are a record of rocks from the ocean floor that have been transported to the lower mantle by plate tectonics, where these diamonds formed under conditions of extreme pressure and temperature, says Petra.

The Cullinan Diamond Mine is one of the world’s most celebrated diamond mines, located at the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountain range. It’s most famous for the Cullinan diamond, discovered in 1905, which is 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,” according to Petra’s website.

More: https://www.petradiamonds.com

UPDATE: Rare blue diamond from South Africa sold for over $40-million