Angola mines another diamond weighing over 200 carats

Angola has mined another diamond weighing more than 200 carats.

Northeast Angola's Lulo mines, which is operated by Lucapa Diamond Company, recently unearthed a 235-carat diamond, two weeks after extracting a rare 208-carat diamond, the firm said on Saturday.

The latest extraction, which is estimated to be millions of US dollars in value, is the 40th diamond weighing more than 100 carats to be discovered at the mine site.

The 235-carat gem is also the second-largest diamond to be mined at Lulo.

Largest diamond

On November 1, a type IIa diamond was mined from the 3,000-square kilometre site.

Natural type IIa diamonds are extremely rare, and it is estimated that only 1 to 2% of earth-grown diamonds are type IIa.

Lulo is also the mine site where the largest diamond in Angola, weighing 404.2 carats, was extracted in February 2016.

It was sold for $16 million in May that year, and yielded $34 million in value after being cut and transformed into jewellery.