So Diavik wasn’t set up to handle big stones, and Foxfire pulled through in August by chance. Yuri Kinakin, superintendent of process technology, said he does think about another giant being crushed—“I get paid to be worried”—but views it as “a statistical question.” One anomaly isn’t enough to rejigger the whole place.
Foxfire looks like a pretty piece of glass with a slight yellow tinge, not the very white hue that’s ideal for engagement rings. That could knock down the value, although Rio Tinto’s experts figure the offending color can be polished away. Meanwhile, all the publicity surrounding the recent sale of the Constellation might be a boon. (The stone was purchased by a trading company in Dubai that will probably chop it into several pieces; even Elizabeth Taylor might not have wanted to wear a golf-ball sized diamond around her neck.)
Jordan Fine of JFine Inc., a dealer specializing in rare diamonds, had a look at Foxfire at New York’s Langham Place Hotel, where it was recently on display for prospective bidders; before that it was showcased at Kensington Palace in London, and its next stops are Antwerp and Tel Aviv. Fine represents a Canadian retailer who would like to burnish the stone in front of customers in his shop and “doesn’t believe that there’s anything higher-end that he could deliver, being from North America.”
Geography comes up again and again with Foxfire—born from volcanic force and buried under ice, it’s hard to imagine a more Canadian diamond. One potential bidder represented by David Shara, CEO of Optimum Diamonds, is considering shaping it into a 100-carat maple leaf.
The world’s biggest ever gem-quality diamond was the 3,106-carat Cullinan, found in 1905 in South Africa. It was fashioned into several polished gems, the two largest of which are part of Britain’s crown jewels. But Shara said Foxfire is unusual enough that it might be kept away from the cutters and remain unpolished as a rough stone, perhaps even in a museum. Bids will be unsealed on June 1, and the winner will be notified by telephone.
“It is something extraordinarily rare that has come from North America,” Shara said, “and it’s that particular story that makes it so interesting to the collectors.”