Recovery of high quality 25.5 carat blue diamond

RNS Number : 5103C

Petra Diamonds Limited

17 April 2013

 



17 April 2013

LSE: PDL

 

Petra Diamonds Limited

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

Recovery of high quality 25.5 carat blue diamond

Petra Diamonds Limited announces the recovery of a 25.5 carat blue diamond at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. The stone is considered to be a high quality gem diamond of top colour.

Blue diamonds are among the rarest and most highly coveted of all diamonds and the Cullinan mine is the most important source of blues in the world. Since Petra acquired the mine, it has produced a number of blue diamonds, including a 26.6 carat rough stone which yielded a fancy vivid blue and internally flawless 7.0 carat polished stone. This important and rare diamond sold for US$9.49 million (or US$1.35 million per carat) at a Sotheby's auction in May 2009, being at the time the highest price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction and the highest price for a fancy vivid blue diamond sold at auction. It was subsequently named the 'Star of Josephine' by its new owner.

Photos of the 25.5 carat blue can be viewed at the Company's website: www.petradiamonds.com and http://www.petradiamonds.com/media/image-library/diamonds.aspx. 

For further information, please contact:

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

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

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

Canaccord Genuity Limited (Joint Broker)	Telephone: [phone]
Andrew Chubb	[e-mail]

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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 eight producing mines: seven in South Africa (Finsch, Cullinan, Koffiefontein, Kimberley Underground, Helam, Sedibeng and Star) and one in Tanzania (Williamson). It also maintains an exploration programme in Botswana.

The Company is undertaking a disposal process in respect of the Helam, Sedibeng and Star mines (the Fissure Mines), which are no longer core to the Group's portfolio.

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 member of the FTSE 250.

For more information, visit the Company's website at www.petradiamonds.com   

About the Cullinan mine:

Many of the world's most magnificent gems have been recovered at Cullinan, including the world's largest gem diamond on record - the Cullinan at 3,106 carats rough - as well as the two largest polished diamonds in the world - the Golden Jubilee (545 carats) and the Great Star of Africa (530 carats).  It is renowned as a source of large diamonds and frequently yields diamonds larger than 10 carats.  Furthermore, it has produced over 750 stones weighing more than 100 carats, 130 stones weighing more than 200 carats, and around a quarter of all diamonds weighing more than 400 carats.

Cullinan is also renowned as the world's most important source of blue diamonds, providing the collection of 11 rare blues which were displayed in 2000 at London's Millennium Dome alongside the Millennium Star. Famous larger blues recovered at Cullinan include the fancy vivid blue 'Heart of Eternity' (27 carats polished), the fancy vivid blue 'Star of Josephine' (26 carats polished) and an unnamed 39.2 carat rough blue which was recovered and sold in 2008.

Other notable diamonds historically produced from Cullinan include the Premier Rose (353 carats rough), the Niarchos (426 carats rough), the De Beers Centenary (599 carats rough), the Golden Jubilee (755 carats rough) and the famous Taylor-Burton diamond (69 carats polished).  More recently, the Cullinan Heritage (507 carats rough) was recovered by Petra and sold for US$35.3 million in February 2010, being the highest price on record for a rough diamond.

Cullinan is based 37km north east of Pretoria in South Africa's Gauteng province.

 

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