Montreal based Diamond Dealer, Laferriere & Brixi Diamantaires Inc., has recently acquired what industry insiders believe to be the largest single rough diamond purchased in Quebec in recent years. Weighing in at over 11.38 carat, this exceptional rough stone was acquired at auction directly from behemoth global miner DeBeers.

“Extraordinary diamonds of this size and quality don’t come to market very often” says Louis-Alexandre Laferriere the proud owner of the stone. In fact, it’s estimated that the occurrence of mining a diamond of this size is less than 0.005% or 1 in 20,000.

“This particular ethically mined rough diamond from Botswana, really caught our eye. The colour was absolutely outstanding and our careful analysis lead us to believe that it had the potential to yield one very important and beautiful single polished diamond.”

These large and exceptional stones are only sold via auction to a select group of international diamond dealers.  “Only the top diamantaires get invited, so bidding is always extremely competitive” says M. Laferriere and “while you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity of acquiring one of these treasures, the risks are also very high from both a costing and production perspective.”

“In and out of itself, the rough has no value. It’s only the final polished stone you can derive from it that counts.” says M. Laferriere.  “Your estimate in terms of the final weight, colour, clarity and cut needs to be extremely precise or else you will lose money.”

Although Laferriere & Brixi uses the latest gemological instruments to assist them in their decision making “nothing can replace human judgment, experience and intuition in these matters.” says the diamond expert. “It helps that we’ve had the good fortune of having bought and appraised thousands of diamonds over the past 15 years.”

With offices in Montreal, St-Lambert and New York, Laferriere & Brixi Diamantaires Inc. is a Buyer & Seller of Larger Diamonds and Custom-Made Jewelry.