If you wanted to sell $22.5 million worth of Australian iron ore, you would need to ship 465,935 tonnes of the stuff.
The 404 carat diamond was found in Angola by Australian-listed company Lucapa Diamond.Photo: Supplied
If you wanted to sell $22.5 million worth of Australian iron ore, you would need to ship 465,935 tonnes of the stuff.
Or you could sell a single seven-centimetre stone that fits neatly in the palm of one hand.
Australian company Lucapa has done the latter, selling the monster 404 carat diamond it found at its mine in Angola earlier this month for $US16 million ($22.5 million).
The legendary Hope Diamond is a little over one-tenth of the size of the unfinished 404 carat Lucapa stone. It is understood to have weighed between 110 and 115 carats before it was cut.
Lucapa declined to disclose the identity of the buyer.
Jewellers consider finished diamonds over 1.7 carats to be large .
Lucapa and its partners found the massive diamond at the Lulo mine, of which Lucapa owns a 40 per cent stake.
The sale price means the white diamond sold for more than $55,000 per carat, according to Lucapa’s chief executive Stephen Wetherall.
‘The sale of a single diamond for $US16 million underlines the huge potential of the Lulo diamond field,’ said Mr Wetherall.
Upon discovering the stone in mid February, Lucapa claimed that it was the biggest ever found in Angola and the 27th largest in the world.
It was sold through the Angolan Government diamond marketing board, known as Sodiam, which sells all diamonds found in Angola.
It is the fourth diamond out of Lulo to have more than 100 carats.
But despite the transaction, investors have sold the stock down today, with Lucapa shares 1 cent lower at $0.41 on Monday afternoon.