A rare 170-carat pink diamond, weighing 34 grams, thought to be the largest in the last 300 years, has been discovered in Angola. Named the "Lulo Rose", after the mine in Angola where it was found, it will be a rare diamond of its category.
Cullinan Mine in South Africa not only produces the most commercially viable diamonds, but also the most scientifically interesting ones, because they offer a unique look into the deep recesses of the planet.
The pressure that this particular diamond would have had to undergo before it formed could have been equivalent to about 240,000 atmospheres, experts believe. While most diamonds are formed at a depth of about 150 to 200 km, this kind of pink diamonds are possibly formed at a depth of at least 700 km.
Testimony to what's happening inside Earth
These diamonds have a unique way of showcasing what is happening deep inside the Earth. "Nobody has ever managed to keep this mineral stable at the Earth's surface," said Graham Pearson, a professor in the University of Alberta's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate.
The latest diamond will be sold later this year through an international tender to be conducted by Angolan state-owned diamond trading firm Sodium, reports said.
This is the fifth largest diamond from a total of 27 diamonds with more than 100 carats extracted in the Lulo mining project. In 2016, similar diamond recovered in Angola of 404-carat white stone that was later named the "4th February Stone".
The country's Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo said the discovery of the pink diamond continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining and demonstrates the potential for commitment and investment in the country's growing diamond mining industry.
Extremely rare diamond
Pink diamonds are extremely rare, but the same physical attributes that make the stones scarce also make them very tough, and not easy to work into shapes.
The largest known pink diamond is the Daria-i-Noor, discovered in India, which experts believe was cut from an even larger stone.
The largest rough diamond of any colour ever recorded is the Cullinan diamond, found in South Africa in 1905. Weighing 3,107 carats, more than half a kilogram, it was cut into 105 different stones.
The largest of these, the Cullinan I, is the biggest clear cut diamond in the world and forms part of the British Crown Jewels.
Rare Earth mineral trapped inside diamond
In 2018, geologists discovered a mineral known as calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) trapped inside a tiny diamond that was mined from less than a kilometer of the earth's surface at the Cullinan Mine in South Africa.
For so long, the mineral existed in theory in spite of the fact it is fourth most abundant mineral inside the Earth. Humans have never seen it before because it becomes extremely unstable above a depth of about 650 kilometers (400 miles).
Scientists are of the opinion that the mineral survived the ascent because it was trapped inside a 'super-deep' diamond".
