Petra Diamonds recovers five rare large high-quality blue diamonds at Cullinan Mine

Petra Diamonds Limited [PDL-LSE] has recovered five Type IIb blue diamonds of high quality in terms of both their colour and clarity at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. The diamonds are also significant in terms of their size, being 25.75, 21.25, 17.57, 11.42 and 9.61 carats, and are assessed to be individual stones and not originally part of one larger diamond.

Blue diamonds are so rare that there are no official statistics on their recovery; however, the Cullinan mine is known as the world’s most important source. The last blue diamond of significance was recovered a year ago at the mine in September 2019 and it is therefore even more unusual to recover five high quality stones around the same time, all in the space of one week’s production.

Given the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is maintaining a flexible approach to sales. It is therefore still evaluating the optimal route to market for the stones and the Company will release further information to its customer base on the marketing plan in due course.

Petra continues to undertake discussions with the Ad Hoc Group of holders of the Group’s Senior Secured Second Lien Notes (“AHG”) and also with the South African lender group regarding a long term solution to improve the Group’s capital structure.

Petra Diamonds is a leading independent diamond mining group and supplier of gem-quality rough diamonds to the international market. The company has interests in three underground producing mines in South Africa (Finsch, Cullinan and Koffiefontein) and one open pit producing mine in Tanzania (Williamson).