BlueRock Diamonds recovers its largest ever diamond

BlueRock Diamonds has recovered its largest diamond to date at its Kareevlei mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa.

The AIM-listed company said on Friday that the 24.98 carat gem quality stone will be put to tender shortly and the results will be known on Monday 17 June.

The largest diamond prior to this was 16.28 carats. It sold for $78,947.

Executive chairman Mike Houston said: "This record recovery of such a high-quality diamond is an exciting milestone and underpins why we are so confident about the potential of the Kareevlei mine. We have a comprehensive development plan to increase production and I look forward to providing further updates as we progress."

At 1405 BST, the shares were up 10% at 0.11p.