Recovery of a 232 carat White Diamond at Cullinan

RNS Number : 1351R

Petra Diamonds Limited

09 September 2014

 



9 September 2014

LSE: PDL

 

Petra Diamonds Limited

("Petra" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Recovery of a 232 carat White Diamond at Cullinan

Petra Diamonds Limited announces the recovery of an exceptional 232.08 carat white diamond at the Cullinan mine in South Africa.

The stone is a D colour Type II diamond of exceptional size and clarity, and is a magnificent example of the large, high quality diamonds for which the mine is known - see the 'Notes to Editors' section for more information.

The Company will update the market when finalised on the expected timing for the sale of this stone, which is expected to be in the second quarter of this financial year.

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 further information, please contact:

Petra Diamonds, London	Telephone: [phone]
Cathy Malins	[e-mail]
Cornelia Grant	[e-mail]

Buchanan (PR Adviser)	Telephone: [phone]
Bobby Morse Louise Mason	[e-mail] [e-mail]

RBC Capital Markets (Joint Broker)	Telephone: [phone]
Matthew Coakes Jonathan Hardy	[e-mail] [e-mail]

Barclays (Joint Broker)	Telephone: [phone]
Bertie Whitehead	[e-mail]
Marcus Jackson	[e-mail]

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 is currently on sales tender in South Africa (tender closes Friday 12 September 2014).

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.

 

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