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Huge pink diamond found in Australia

22 February 2012 07:50 (UTC +04:00)

Named the Argyle Pink Jubilee, the huge rough stone was found at Rio’s pink diamond operations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and would take 10 days to cut and polish, the miner said on Wednesday.
Though it would not speculate on how much the Jubilee was worth, Rio said extremely high quality pink diamonds could fetch in excess of US$1 million per carat, meaning it is likely to go for at least $10 million. The light pink Argyle Jubilee is a similar colour to the 24-carat Williamson Pink given to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift which was later set into a Cartier brooch for her coronation. The Williamson was discovered in Tanzania in 1947 and is ranked among the finest pink diamonds in existence. It is the ninth-largest in the world. A Rio spokesman told AFP the recent discovery was named in honour of the long-reigning British monarch, who is celebrating 60 years since her accession to the throne -- her diamond jubilee.

Rio produces more than 90 percent of the world’s pink diamonds from the Argyle mine, and said large stones like the Jubilee typically went to museums, were gifted to royalty or end up at prestigious auction houses like Christie’s.

Christie’s had only auctioned 18 polished pink diamonds larger than 10 carats in its 244-year history, Rio added.