550 carat Rough Diamond Sold for $16.5 Million

550 ct Letseng Star fetched $30,000 p/c

(IDEX Online News) – The Letseng Star, a 550 carat, Type IIa, D color rough diamond was sold for $16.5 million, Gem Diamonds announced. The diamond has been sold into a profit sharing arrangement, under the company's new sales and marketing strategy the miner added.

Gem Diamonds recovered the diamond on August 19 at its Letseng mine in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The Letseng Star is currently ranked as the 14th largest white diamond on record and is the fourth diamond of such historical significance to be recovered at Letseng since 2006.

Under, the Letseng Star has been sold into a profit sharing arrangement for a rough price of $16.5 million, payable immediately.

Letseng Diamonds will then further benefit from a significant share of the downstream polished margin uplift resulting from the sale of the polished diamonds cut from the Letseng Star, the diamond miner stated.

"Gem Diamonds' strategy of maximizing revenue generation from our rough diamonds by seeking value-added initiatives further up the diamond value chain is gaining importance for the Group, and we are becoming increasingly successful in selling rough and polished diamonds with good margins being realized," said CEO, Clifford Elphick.