GENEVA—Christie’s says “The Rock,” an egg-sized white diamond billed as the largest of its kind to go up for auction, sold Wednesday for more than 21.6 million Swiss francs ($21.75 million), including fees—though at the low end of the expected range. The 228-carat pear-shaped G-Color stone, with its platinum pendant mounting, has a gross weight…

GENEVA—The largest white diamond ever auctioned will go under the hammer in Geneva next week, part of a sale by Christie’s that features two stones weighing more than 200 carats each. “The Rock,” a 228.31 carat pear-shaped stone roughly the size of a golf ball, is expected to sell for up to $30 million, the…

Gem hunter Louie Kappa knows the thrill of plucking 350-million-year-old quartz crystals from hidden rock cavities with his bear hands—especially if that sparkly stone is worth thousands. It’s all in a day’s work for Kappa, who specializes in mining Herkimer diamonds. A recent video shared on social media showed his friend Lara produce one of the…

NEW YORK—It’s the largest and most valuable blue diamond to ever come to auction. And, it’s a recent discovery. The more than 15-carat De Beers Cullinan Blue diamond was mined in 2021 at South Africa’s Cullinan Mine, one of the few sources in the world for extremely rare blue diamonds. It will be offered in…

The world’s largest known cut diamond, a rare 555.55-carat black diamond, went on display for the first time in auction house Sotheby’s Dubai on Monday, and it’s literary out of the world. Sotheby’s calls the 555.55-carat black diamond—believed to have come from outer space—“The Enigma.” Sophie Stevens, a jewelry specialist at Sotheby’s Dubai, told The…

Two pairs of bejewelled Mughal-era spectacles set with diamond and emerald lenses are expected to fetch up to $3.5 million each when they are auctioned in London on Wednesday, Oct. 27. The glasses were commissioned by an unknown 17th-century prince, auction house Sotheby’s said, with the precious stone lenses believed to boost spiritual enlightenment. One…

The IMF gives a warning: it says the global recovery is slowing down, and it’s cutting its forecast. What’s the reason? California moves toward banning gas-powered lawnmowers and leaf blowers. What does it mean for landscaping businesses? And why are some lawmakers concerned? Consumers are spending big on diamonds. What’s behind the surge in demand?

A retired California couple struck paydirt while visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas late last month when the soil yielded the visitors a large, pear-shaped yellow diamond. Noreen Wredberg and her husband Michael from Granite Bay spend much of their time traveling to national parks in the United States; and found themselves at…

JOHANNESBURG—Unidentified stones that lured thousands of fortune seekers to a rural South African village to mine the land with picks and shovels were not diamonds as hoped, officials said on Sunday, but quartz stones with relatively low, if any, value. People from across South Africa travelled to KwaHlathi in the country’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province where…

Christian Liden has nurtured a dream since 8th grade: to one day create an engagement ring for his future wife out of materials he himself mined. It was this dream that propelled him to Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park where he discovered a 2.20 carat yellow diamond—especially precious. Liden, 26, made the 2,000-mile trip from Poulsbo,…