30ct. Pink Diamond Garners Record Sum for Tender House

A 29.52-carat pink diamond went for more than $8 million at South Africa-based Pioneer Diamond Tender House, the highest price for any stone the company has sold.

The fancy-vivid-pink, type II rough — named the Protea Pink after South Africa’s national flower of the same color — raked in $271,307 per carat, Pioneer said Wednesday.

A junior mining company recovered the diamond from a deposit on the banks of the middle Orange River, according to Lyndon de Meillon, a shareholder in Pioneer. The stone is believed to come from a 90 million-year-old Lesotho kimberlite that broke off and made its way down the river, where it got trapped in a terrace approximately 500 kilometers from its original location, he explained.

“This unique diamond…once again showcased why the alluvial diamond deposits of South Africa represent the highest and most consistent value-per-carat diamond supply in the world,” de Meillon added.