Sakha Republic government-owned Alrosa has extracted a giant, flawless 301.55-carat diamond — the third-largest gem-quality diamond ever unearthed in Russia.
The 46-by-32-by-26-mm lemon-yellow stone was mined from the Udachnaya pipe by the company’s Udachninsky mining division, and was extracted from the second stage of recovery at the No. 12 processing plant.
The diamond has a maximum screen grid of 50 mm and is evidently damaged. Experts believe it represents about one-third of an even larger octahedron, and more fragments could be recovered soon.
In terms of historic output from Russia and the Soviet Union, the diamond is smaller only than the 342.5-carat 26th Communist Party Congress diamond, mined in 1980 from the Mir pipe in Mirny, and the 320.65-carat Alexander Pushkin diamond, mined in 1989 from Udachnaya.
So far at Udachnaya in 2003, Alrosa has mined a 700-carat technical diamond, several 80-carat jewelry-grade diamonds, a 232.7-carat tobacco-yellow coloured diamond, and a 66-carat flawless lemon-coloured octahedron.
Alrosa is Russia’s only diamond mining company and the world’s second-largest producer of rough diamonds (after De Beers), accounting for about 20% of global production.
Be the first to comment on "Alrosa uncovers giant diamond"