Alrosa Finds Its Largest Diamond in Three Years

RAPAPORT... Alrosa has unearthed a rough stone weighing 232.4 caratsat the Udachnaya pipe, its largest in more than three years. "Such large, gem-quality crystals are extremely rare,"Evgeny Agureev, deputy CEO of Alrosa, said last week. "Of course, they arepresent at Alrosa's deposits, but we have not seen them since 2016, when twodiamonds weighing over 200 carats were mined." The octahedron stone is white, with a slight yellowish tingeand several chips. It found the diamond last week at the site's N12 processingplant. The Russian miner last recovered comparably sized diamonds in May 2016,when it retrieved a 207.29-carat rough from its Zarnitsa pipe, and a241.24-carat rough from the Nyurbinskaya pipe in June of that year. In January this year, the company's Udachnaya pipe yielded a 191.46-caratstone. Alrosa will send the 232-carat stone to its United SellingOrganization for detailed study and evaluation, it added. Image: The 232-carat diamond. (Alrosa)