Petra Diamonds announced today that the 168.00 carat special white diamond recently recovered at the Cullinan mine in South Africa was sold yesterday for US$6.28 million (approximately US$37,380 or £22,800 per carat).

The four exceptional diamonds recently recovered from Cullinan mine; the 168ct diamond is second from top. Image by Petra Diamonds.

The diamond was sold in its rough (uncut) state.

This stone, which was sold to an undisclosed buyer, is of exceptional colour and quality and was recovered in the same production series as three other special diamonds: the 507.55 carat white diamond (which has not been offered for sale yet) and two diamonds of 58.50 and 53.30 carats, which were sold in November for a total of US$2.8 million (£1.7 million).

The Cullinan mine is renowned as a source of large, high-value diamonds and in its history has produced more than 300 diamonds of over 100 carats and a quarter of all the world’s diamonds over 400 carats, according to Petra.

Johan Dippenaar, CEO of Petra, said: “I am delighted to announce the sale of this special white diamond from Cullinan.”

“The interest in the stone was very high, as was the case with the two smaller (53 and 58 carat) rough diamonds sold in mid November, and the three diamonds have together achieved a total sales value of just over US$9 million [around £5.5 million].”

See also our earlier report: Colossal 507 carat diamond unearthed at Cullinan mine.

Petra Diamonds operates five mines in South Africa (Cullinan, Koffiefontein, Helam, Sedibeng and Star) and has reached an agreement to acquire a further mining asset from De Beers: the Kimberley Underground mines. Petra has also recently acquired a 75% interest in the Williamson diamond mine in Tanzania.

In the year to the end of June 2009, Petra’s production surpassed 1 million carats – a five-fold increase over the 200,287 carats produced in the previous financial year.