A 552-Carat Yellow Diamond Was Just Unearthed In Canada’s Arctic — A Record North American Discovery

Back in October in the Northwest Territory arctic regions of Canada, a 552 carat, yellow diamond was dug up and is believed to be the largest diamond ever discovered in North America by miners of Dominion Diamond Mines and Rio Tinto RIO, it was announced last week.

This yellow diamond measures around 3 centimeters by 5.5 centimeters is by comparison about the size of a chicken egg and it is almost three times larger than the Foxfire diamond. 

“A diamond of this size is completely unexpected for this part of the world and marks a true milestone for diamond mining in North America…,” the Dominion  said in a release. Dominion owns 40% of the mine located at Diavik, Canada where the Foxfire diamond was unearthed.  Foxfire is a two-billion-year-old diamond.

The newly discovered diamond’s “color, texture and structure are also unique from a geological perspective and may be studied further,” Dominion said. “The size and highly technical nature of this stone means that only a handful of master cutters in the world are qualified to polish it, ensuring that the stone’s beauty, color and brilliance are maximized.”

Dominion expects to produce a significant sized main stone from the large yellow diamond discovered once it is polished.  This remarkable stone will be Canadamark certified which is the  premier process that confirms its Canadian origins, responsible mining and quality. 

At this point because the diamond is so rare, valuation is not possible, however, the next largest diamond called the Foxfire discovered in the same area in Canada in 2015 weighed 187.7 carats and after being cut into two pear shaped diamonds was auctioned off recently for $1.5 million.

After the Foxfire diamond was polished, it produced two diamonds. One 37.87 brilliant cut pear shaped diamond and the other a 36.80 brilliant cut pear shape diamond.  Both were recently auctioned off in earring settings through Christie’s Auction House of Great Britain for $1.5 million.

This new yellow diamond find is part of 30 of the largest diamonds to ever be found.  The largest uncut diamond ever so far is the Cullinan diamond, mined near Pretoria, South Africa, which  weighed in at 3,106 carats in 1905 as reported on Mining.com. It was cut and polished into 9 major stones, 96 brilliants and 9.5 carats of unpolished stones.

Among the stones produced by the Cullinan were two large stones:  the Great Star of Africa which was set into the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain which is estimated to be worth $400 million and the other set into the Royal Scepter  of Great Britain.