Letlapa Tala raised US$40.36m

Letlapa Tala Collection Special Tender achieves US$40.36 million 

Following a competitive tender process, Petra Diamonds Limited announces that the Letlapa Tala Collection of five blue diamonds, weighing 85.6 carats in total, was sold as a suite of stones to a partnership between De Beers and Diacore for a total price of US$40.36 million, payable in cash prior to delivery of the stones.

Richard Duffy, Chief Executive of Petra, commented, “The result of this special tender affirms the very high value placed on blue diamonds, which are undoubtedly one of nature’s rarest treasures. We believe this to be the first time that five rough blue diamonds of significant size, colour and clarity have been offered for sale at one time and we are delighted that the collection has been bought in its entirety.” 

The Letlapa Tala Collection consists of five Type IIb blue diamonds of 25.75, 21.25, 17.57, 11.42 and 9.61 carats in size. Type II diamonds contain no detectable nitrogen in their chemical structure and tend to display exceptional transparency. Type IIb stones contain a small amount of boron which is what determines their blue colour. 

The Letlapa Tala Collection remained available for viewings in the key diamond centres of, 1: Antwerp: 25 October – 1 November 2020, 2: Hong Kong: 5 – 10 November 2020 & 3: New York: 16 – 20 November 2020.

The sales tender for the collection taken place thereafter and closed the process at 3pm GMT on 24 November 2020. 

Letlapa Tala means, blue rock in Northern Sotho (commonly known as Pedi), the predominant language spoken in the Cullinan area.