Mining giant Alrosa recently unearthed a rough diamond weighing more than 230 carats – the largest gem-quality stone found by the company in over three years.

The 232.40-carat octahedron crystal, extracted from the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe, has a yellowish hue and several chips, with dimensions of 40mm by 39mm by 23mm.

“Such large gem-quality crystals are extremely rare. Of course, they are present at Alrosa’s deposits, but we have not seen them since 2016, when two diamonds weighing over 200 carats were mined,” said Evgeny Agureev, deputy CEO of Alrosa.

The stone will be sent to the United Selling Organization of Alrosa for detailed study and evaluation. In January this year, Alrosa also mined a 191.46-carat diamond from the Udachnaya pipe.

Discovered in 1955, the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe is one of the largest primary diamond deposits around the globe. Since its development in 1967, this deposit has brought in hundreds of large diamonds. In the first nine months of 2019, the Udachnaya pipe produced 2.385 million carats of rough diamonds.