104 carat Diamond found by Lucapa Diamond Company
September 25th, 2016 by Noam Flint
Australian diamond mining company Lucapa Diamond Company has made its third big diamond discovery of the year.
104 carat diamond discovered by Lucapa Diamond Company
Image by Lucapa Diamond Company
The discovery was made at their Lulo Diamond Project , located in Angola’s Lunda Norte diamond heartland and east of the Angolan capital of Luanda. It is the fifth diamond larger than 100 carats to be discovered there as the company is digging for the kimberlite pipeline where the diamonds in the mine originate.
Amazing & Colorful Discoveries
The 104 carat colorless diamond was classified as a Type IIa diamond – the same type as other extraordinary diamonds such as the priceless Hope Diamond and the Graff Pink.
It is the second important diamond discovered at the mine this month. Earlier in September, Lucapa found a 38.6 carat rough pink diamond, the largest fancy color diamond ever discovered at the mine.
How Much a 104 carat Diamond Worth?
The most impressive find of the year was the 404 carat rough colorless diamond that was discovered in February, which sold for $16 million. Based on that final sales price, a rough estimate for the value of this diamond is about $4 million, which will depend on many factors such as the potential for the polished diamonds and market demand for a rough diamond of this size.
After all, the 1,109 carat rough diamond called the Lesedi la Rona failed to sell this summer when it went up for auction. The diamond, which was discovered at the end of 2015 by Lucara Diamond Corp failed to sell either due to its high reserve price or because of the lack of market demand for such a diamond.
The Lesedi La Rona on display at Sotheby’s
Image credit: Sotheby’s
However, there is no reason to believe that the new Lucapa diamond will follow suit because a 104 carat diamond has a much stronger demand than a diamond over 1000 carats, as unbelievable as that may seem. The reality is that fewer bidders are able to afford such an impressive diamond so if the small pool of candidates is not interested, then a diamond will simply fail to sell. However, a respectable 104 carat diamond falls into the price range of many suitable bidders and will most probably sell with no issue, as the 404 carat diamond did in February.
The striking 104 carat diamond is an excellent find for the small Australian company based in Perth and will go a long way towards establishing them as a force to contend with. Will it sell and for how much – time will tell…
