Australian miner Merlin Diamonds has announced that a white Gem Z rough sold in September achieved a sale price of $11,897.51 per carat for a total of $157,880.
According to a press release by the miner, the 13.27 carat “is a very high quality D colour diamond” with minor imperfections and a faint fluorescence. Merlin added: “Stones such as this, once polished, could receive the GIA grade, D flawless, which is the highest possible grade for a diamond”.
In July, Merlin Diamonds started to drill anew at its Merlin Diamond Mine. According to Rough & Polished, the drilling is focused on “40 priority targets out of 74 potential ones to identify undiscovered kimberlites”. According to the company, the “Merlin Mine Lease has been largely underexplored”, and has the potential to hold “many more undiscovered kimberlite pipes”. The 40 priority targets are similar in their geophysical and geochemical signatures to known Merlin kimberlite pipes.
