ALROSA Recovers Unique Pink 27.85-Carat Diamond

(IDEX Online) – ALROSA subsidiary, Almazy Anabara, has recovered a large pink rough diamond weighing 27.85 carats, comfortably becoming the largest such diamond ever found by the miner.

ALROSA said that if it decides to cut the stone, it could become the most expensive polished diamond in the history of the Russian miner.

The rough diamond has dimensions of 22.47 x 15.69 x 10.9 mm. The gem-quality pink stone is almost free of inclusions.

ALROSA often recovers pink and other colored diamonds at the Severalmaz kimberlite pipes or placer deposits belonging to Almazy Anabara. However, colored diamonds weighing over 10 carats are extremely rare and only recovered about once a year. As for the pink shades, by far the largest pink diamond found by ALROSA weighed 3.86 carats and was found by Almazy Anabara in 2012. Apart from that stone, during the last 8 years ALROSA has only recovered three pink diamonds weighing more than two carats.

"The unique characteristics of the diamond make it an extraordinary, rare stone of high value. Currently, experts of the United Selling Organization (USO) of ALROSA and the company's polishing division DIAMONDS ALROSA are examining the stone to make the decision whether to auction it as a rough or cut it into polished diamond," said Evgeny Agureev, the head of USO ALROSA.

"Large stones, especially colored, are always in demand at auctions. But if the company decided to cut it, it would become the most expensive diamond in the entire history of ALROSA," he added.