Sixty-five extremely rare pink and red diamonds yesterday were unveiled by mining giant Rio Tinto, which expects the stones from a remote western Australia mine to fetch record prices.
The diamonds come from the Anglo-Australian firm’s Argyle mine — where more than 90 percent of the world’s pink and red diamonds are dug up each year.
“This year, we probably have the most valuable tender ever,” Rio Tinto diamonds and minerals chief executive officer Alan Davies told reporters of the annual sale.
“So we’ve got a number of fancy reds and the color and the clarity this year is truly unique... They are so rare that all of the pinks you can have in the palm of your hand and all the reds you can count on one hand, so they truly are in the category of luxury collection,” he said.
This year’s collection features five “hero” gems, including a 1.93 carat fancy vivid purplish-pink, shield-shaped diamond, and a 1.47 carat fancy red oval-shaped jewel.
Rio said this year’s selection, which weighs a total of 44.14 carats, had some of the “most vivid” pink and red diamonds ever unearthed from the mine.
The jewels usually sell for US$1 million to US$2 million per carat.
As a basic rule of thumb, pink and red diamonds are worth about 50 times more than white diamonds.
Davies said there was worldwide interest in the diamonds, which are to go on sale on Oct. 21, as they are viewed, like artwork, as collectibles.
“There’s tremendous interest in Asia, but this is a global market, so it is Asia, the Middle East, United States, everywhere,” he said.
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