The Biggest Pink Diamond in 300 Years Has Been Unearthed

The Lulo Rose, the biggest pink diamond discovered in centuries according to its owners, was recently unearthed at a mine in Angola, reports the Associated Press. Weighing 170 carats, the gem is especially valuable because of its rosy hue.

“Only one in 10,000 diamonds is colored pink,” said Stephen Wetherall, CEO of Australia’s Lucapa Diamond Company, which owns the Lulo mine, according to the AP. “So you’re certainly looking at a very rare article when you find a very large pink diamond.”  

Moreover, “only one in every 100 diamonds is greater than 10.8 carats in size," Wetherall told CNN, which further puts the Lula Rose in a class all its own. Lucapa and its Angolan miner partners, Endiama and Rosas & Petalas, did not comment on the diamond’s estimated value, but they plan to auction it through the Angolan diamond marketing company, Sodiam.

Diamonds tinted with color often sell for huge figures; the Pink Star diamond earned a record-breaking $71.2 million in 2017 and the Cullinan Blue diamond ended up with an astonishing $57 million price tag this year. The Fancy Red diamond (yes, that is its real name) is estimated to be worth more than $10 million. 

In addition to this colorful diamond, the Lulo mine has produced clear diamonds that are much larger, including one that weighed 404 carats.

“This record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining and demonstrates the potential and rewards for commitment and investment in our growing diamond mining industry,” said Diamantino Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas said, according to the AP.