5 Amazing Pink Diamond Facts

Harsh Maheshwari, executive director of Kunming Diamonds, shares his expert knowledge of the stones

1

They are really rare Before its closure last year, the Argyle Diamond Mine [in South Africa] supplied approximately 90 per cent of the world’s pink diamonds. A year’s worth of production fits into a single champagne flute, making these diamonds the rarest of the rare.

2

They are very expensive Some medium-quality pink diamonds attract prices 20 times higher than their white diamond equivalents. The current record auction price is for the Pink Star, which was sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 2017 for US$71.2 million.

3 They haven’t been around long

Pink diamonds are the youngest diamonds to exist, at roughly one billion years old. White diamonds typically take between one and three billion years to form, which is approximately 25 per cent to 75 per cent of the age of the Earth.

4

They are difficult to polish

Pink diamonds take three to four times longer to polish than white diamonds. Craftsmen have compared polishing a pink diamond to cutting knotted wood, whereas polishing a white diamond is similar to cutting butter—a much easier task. 5

They are small

Only 3 per cent of the pink diamonds produced by the Argyle Diamond Mine are over one carat, while 85 per cent are below 0.15 carats, which is less that 3mm in diameter.