Alrosa announced yesterday that it had recovered a large diamond of 121.96 carats from its Jubilee kimberlite pipe extracted by the company’s business unit Aikhal Mining and Processing Division (MPD) at processing plant No. 14.

“The diamond has an octahedral shape, its dimensions are 31.28 Ñ… 30.00 Ñ… 28.57 mm,” Alrosa declared. “The crystal of ‘2 Black Sawables 3 colour’ quality is transparent with moderate yellowish hue. There are small olivine, graphite and sulphide inclusions in this crystal.”

Alrosa pointed out that the Jubilee pipe is well known for the large diamonds it has yielded. Over the last year to date, some diamonds weighing from 50 to 138 carats have been recovered. Amongst them two were notably named after or to mark important events. A 76.07-carat diamond was named in honour of “70 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War – the substantial part of World War II” Alrosa said. Another, the Jubilee diamond, a 64.23-carat octahedral gem, was named in honour of the 40th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Angola in December.