The rocky, ice-smoothed hills of the Canadian Shield are famous for their prolificacy in valuable minerals including nickel, gold, copper and diamonds—and Canada has risen meteorically to become a leading diamond powerhouse in little over two decades due to the country’s exceptional quality gems.
And now the region has hit another milestone after the discovery of a 552-carat yellow diamond, the largest ever found in North America.
The 33.74mm x 54.56mm rough diamond--about the size of a chicken egg--was unearthed at the Diavik Diamond Mine jointly owned by Rio Tinto (LSE:RIO) and Dominion Diamond Mine. The sheer size of the gem puts to dust the previous record held by the famous “Diavik Foxfire,” a 187.7-carat stone discovered at the same mine in 2015.
According to a press statement released by the company, a diamond that size is very rare in the region due to the violent geological upheavals it went through over billions of years of its existence.
Still, it only ranks as the world’s 7th largest gem-quality diamond, with South Africa’s 3,106-carat Cullinan discovered in 1905 taking the crown.
(Click to enlarge)
Source: Fox News
Dominion says it intends to select a partner to cut and polish the stone before selling. The polished stone will contain the much sought after "Canadamark" hallmark that shows it was responsibly mined, natural and untreated. Canadamark brand is a trademark owned by Dominion Diamond Mines that employs an independently audited process to track a gem from the mine of origin to the polished stone.
And now to the million-dollar question: how much is the latest find worth?
Dominion says it expects to achieve a significant main stone once the gem is polished. The company, however, says it’s very hard to give a ballpark price estimate since diamonds are usually graded on the 4Cs (cut, color, clarity and carat).
The cutting process plays a big part in determining the value of the final product meaning it’s possible for two diamonds of equal carat weight to attract very different prices. It’s quite likely though that the figure will be in the tens of millions of dollars considering that a 36.80-carat diamond recently sold at Christie’s auction house for $1.3 million.
By Alex Kimani for Safehaven.com
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