Lucapa Discovers 95 Carat Diamond in Angola

Lulo Diamond Concession in Angola is housing some major bling! In 2012 a 131.4 carat diamond was unearthed and Lucapa Diamond Company has recently found a 95.45 ct. stone.

To put this in perspective: the size of the large diamond on the average engagement ring is 1.19 ct. according to Glamour. That means that this newly-discovered stone is the size of 80 engagement rings combined!

Top Celebrity Rings

Maybe we all remember that Kim Kardashian’s pre-wedding bling in 2011 — 20.5 carats from her to-be husband Kris Humphries! That stunner of an accessory cost a fat $2 million as Forbes reported. Graded I in color and VS1 in clarity, that ring later sold at an auction for $749,000. Her later ring from Kayne was smaller at 15 carats, but was reportedly valued at $8 million because of flawless or near-flawless stone.

Kim isn’t the only celebrity who sports major glitz with news of their engagement:

Jay-Z gave Beyoncé an 18 ct. promise (20 ct. total) worth a cool $5 million.
Paris Latsis gave Paris Hilton a ring with a total of 24 ct. in diamonds worth $4.7 mil.
Brad Pitt gave Angelina Jolie a custom 16 ct. stunner
Seal gave Heidi Klum a unique 10 ct. yellow diamond

Some celebrities actually have to put up with a clunky ring for the sheer status and prominence of it! Paris Hilton, for example, couldn’t take the size of the 24 ct. ring and exchanged hers for a less-bulky version from Cartier. The size and weight of these diamonds are inconvenient, but glam-or-ous!

The Elephant in the Room

On the other end of the spectrum, the Cullinan diamond takes the spot for the largest diamond ever found (with gem-quality). Ringing in at a 3106.75 carat size and over 4 inches, the Cullinan diamond weighs 1.33 pounds. This quality rock was found in 1905 in South Africa.

Because of the overwhelming size of the diamond, the Cullinan was cut into over 100 smaller diamonds by Joseph Asscher. If you think the pressure of cutting the world’s largest diamond would be heavy, then you would be right. According to an article by History, Asscher fainted after making the cut when the diamond shattered exactly as planned.

You might think 100 smaller diamonds would mean engagement-ring-sized stones, but 9 large stones were also cut—the biggest of these was 530 carats. This stone (called the “Star of Africa I” or the “Cullinan I”) is still the a largest-cut colorless fine-quality diamond in the world.

What do you do with a major stone? Well, the Cullinan I is mounted in the Royal Scepter of Brittan and its sister the Cullinan II (317 ct.) may be seen in Brittan’s Imperial State Crown. These diamonds are now able to be seen in the Tower of London.

Lulo Diamond

The 95.45 ct. diamond recently found in Angola is still a major find, possibly worth millions of dollars. We say possibly because the color and clarity are yet to be determined. The Lucapa Diamond Company is optimistic that the appearance will be dramatically improved with cleaning and iron removal. At the time of the press conference the colorimeter was still not clear, with parts classified as white and other parts as brown.