Last checked at 24 Oct 2014 11:34
24 October 2014 | LSE: PDL |
Petra Diamonds Limited
("Petra" or the "Company" or the "Group")
232 carat Cullinan white diamond sells for US$15.2 million
Petra Diamonds Limited announces that the exceptional 232.08 carat white diamond recovered at the Cullinan mine in South Africa in September 2014 has today been sold for US$15,219,219 million (US$65,577 per carat) to Diacore, a multinational diamond company.
Johan Dippenaar, CEO of Petra, commented:
"We are delighted to have achieved the sales result for this exceptional white stone, which is an outstanding example of the very high quality, large diamonds produced at Cullinan."
Photos of the stone can be viewed on the Company's website at www.petradiamonds.com and www.petradiamonds.com/media/image-library/diamonds.
For more information on the Cullinan mine and its heritage, view the Notes to Editors section.
For more information on Diacore, visit www.diacore.com.
For further information, please contact:
Petra Diamonds, London | Telephone: +44 20 7494 8203 |
Cathy Malins | cathy.malins@petradiamonds.com |
Cornelia Grant | cornelia.grant@petradiamonds.com |
Buchanan (PR Adviser) | Telephone: +44 20 7466 5000 |
Bobby Morse Louise Mason | bobbym@buchanan.uk.com louisem@buchanan.uk.com |
RBC Capital Markets (Joint Broker) | Telephone: +44 20 7653 4000 |
Matthew Coakes Jonathan Hardy | matthew.coakes@rbccm.com jonathan.hardy@rbccm.com |
Barclays (Joint Broker) | Telephone: +44 20 7623 2323 |
Bertie Whitehead | bertie.whitehead@barclays.com |
Marcus Jackson | marcus.jackson@barclays.com |
About Petra Diamonds Limited
Petra Diamonds is a leading independent diamond mining group and an increasingly important supplier of rough diamonds to the international market. The Company has interests in six producing mines: five in South Africa (Finsch, Cullinan, Koffiefontein, Kimberley Underground and Helam) and one in Tanzania (Williamson). It also maintains an exploration programme in Botswana.
Petra offers an exceptional growth profile, with a core objective to steadily increase annual production to 5 million carats by FY 2019. The Group has a major resource base in excess of 300 million carats.
Petra conducts all operations according to the highest ethical standards and will only operate in countries which are members of the Kimberley Process. Petra is quoted with a premium listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker 'PDL' and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
For more information, visit the Company's website at www.petradiamonds.com.
About the Cullinan mine
Located at the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountain range, 37 kilometres north-east of Pretoria in South Africa, Cullinan is one of the world's most celebrated diamond mines.
It earned its place in history with the discovery of the Cullinan diamond in 1905, 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.
Cullinan is renowned as a source of large diamonds and frequently yields diamonds larger than 10 carats. Furthermore, it has produced just under 800 stones weighing more than 100 carats, over 130 stones weighing more than 200 carats, and around a quarter of all diamonds weighing more than 400 carats.
In its history, the mine has produced four of the top 20 largest high quality gem diamonds: The Cullinan (3,106 carats rough), The Golden Jubilee (755 carats rough), The Centenary (599 carats rough) and The Cullinan Heritage (507 carats rough). The Cullinan Heritage was recovered by Petra in 2009 and sold in February 2010 for US$35.3 million, being the highest price on record for a rough diamond.
Other notable diamonds from Cullinan include The Premier Rose (353 carats rough), The Niarchos (426 carats rough) and the famous Taylor-Burton diamond (69 carats polished).
Cullinan is also renowned as the world's most important source of blue diamonds. Since Petra acquired the mine in 2008, it has produced a number of world-class blue diamonds including most recently a 29.6 carat diamond, which sold for US$25.6 million (or US$862,780 per carat) in February 2014, and a 122.5 carat blue diamond recovered in June 2014 which sold in September for US$27.6 million (US$225,269 per carat) to a beneficiation partnership comprising Petra (15%) and its polishing partner (85%).
About Type II Diamonds
Type II diamonds have no measurable nitrogen impurities, meaning they are often of top quality in terms of colour and clarity.