Gem Diamonds achieves record price for 13.3 carat pink diamond

Gem Diamonds said on Thursday that it has sold a 13.3 carat pink diamond that was recovered from its Letseng mine in Lesotho in February for just over $8.75m.

The diamond was sold on tender in Antwerp and the price achieved is a record dollar per carat price for a Letseng diamond of $656,933.

The announcement comes a day after the company released its full-year results, which showed a rise in revenue, underlying earnings and profit for the year to the end of December 2018.

Chief executive Clifford Elphick said on Wednesday that 2018 was characterised by the recovery of 15 diamonds greater than 100 carats, a record for a single calendar year.

"Production in 2018 also included the highest recovery of diamonds greater than 20 carats, with 80% of revenue primarily generated by diamonds greater than 10 carats," he said in the annual results statement.

At 1205 GMT, the shares were up 1.8% to 91p.