cullinan mine

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History Acquires Cullinan Blue Diamond Necklace

Yesterday, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History unveiled its latest addition to the National Gem Collection, the Cullinan Diamond Necklace - a piece dating back to 1910 and boasting a history nearly as rich as its famous neighbor, the Hope Diamond.

A 30-carat piece is crafted in the Edwardian style, and boasts a unique structure which allows it to be worn as both brooch and necklace. The centerpiece stone is a large 2.6 carat "fancy blue" diamond with a chain of smaller blue and white diamond pieces.

Jeff Post, curator of the collection, calls the piece "very important ... people get a little bit jaded here [with the Hope Diamond so close by] but there's no where else in the world you can go [to see two such diamonds together."

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Huge Diamond Sells For Over $35 Million

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Last fall we speculated that a huge 507-carat piece of rough diamond might sell for $30 million. The result was even bigger than anticipated. Petra Diamonds announced that the stone sold for $35.3 million which was the highest sale price ever for a rough stone, an impressive $69,557 per carat. Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company Ltd. bought the rock which has been given the preliminary name "Cullinan Heritage," at a tender in South Africa. The stone is the 19th largest piece of rough unearthed in history and is exceptional both in terms of size and color and clarity.

It is believed that the buyers will seek to sell the stone in China. The rough stone could yield a "D-flawless" clear polished stone of 170-180 carats, a stone which could sell at a huge price. The diamond will be doubtlessly be scrutinized by teams of expert cutters and all possible strategies will be mapped and modeled before the first cut is made, a process which generally takes several months.

Gallery: Big Rocks, Big Bucks

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Chicken Egg-Sized Diamond Could Get Over $30 Million

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Bloomberg calls it a chicken-egg-sized diamond but the 507.6 carat rough stone found at Petra Diamonds' Cullinan mine in South Africa in September could earn some serious scratch. The diamond was part of a haul of four large stones found at the mine in September. The other stones, including a 168-carat stone sold for $6.28 million last week, have all been sold off. The other two stones sold for a total of $2.8 million. Now BMO Capital Markets is predicting a possible price of $31 million for biggest stone. The price is just an estimate.

Petra is still considering what to do with the stone. Stones of this size aren't found too often and the company is taking its time and pursuing all angles before any potential sale. The company's goal is obviously to get the biggest price for the stone but also to help make sure that the stone's legend lives on. Unlike many small diamonds, large stones tend to carry the name of their source along with them. It's hard to say what the final carat count will be. Rough stones can lose half their carat weight in polishing. Depending on the inclusions and other flaws that the diamond cutters will have to work around this could yield several substantial cut stones which could each go on to command their own multimillion price tags as they head down the supply chain.

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