The mine sits along the River Krishna, on its south bank where it passes through the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is considered to have been one of the most prolific diamond mines in its heyday. The mine is a part of the famous Golconda family of mines, and arguably its most famous mine. Of course, it would be remiss of us not to mention some of the prominent pieces of the Crown Jewels of the UK and Iran – the poetically named Koh-i-Noor (Sea of Light) and Daria-i-Noor (Mountain of Light), respectively. The list includes stones such as the somewhat mysterious Hope Diamond (widely believed to be the largest portion of the Tavernier Blue), the Orlov Diamond (also spelled Orloff, not to be confused with the Black Orlov), the Tereshchenko diamond, the Dresden Green, the Regent, the Great Mogul and Nizam diamond, as well as the Shah and Akbar Shah diamonds. The Kollur Mine boasts of being the place of origin of some of the best known diamonds in the world. Official website: Petra Diamonds – Cullinan Today, the mine is owned and operated by Petra Diamonds, who acquired it from De Beers in November 2007. On that note, it’s important to stress that over a quarter of the world’s diamonds larger than 400 carats originate from here.
The mine is considered one of, if not the most important sources of blue diamonds, extracting its stones from a kimberlite pipe. Other notable diamonds include the Deepdene, Heart of Eternity, as well as the Allnatt Diamond (in all likelihood, though the last one is debated). Other notable diamonds mined in the Premier Mine include the Premier Rose (353.9-carat rough stone cut to a pear-shaped 137.02-carat colourless diamond), the heart-shaped Centenary Diamond (weighing in at 273.85 carats), the Golden Jubilee Diamond (at 545.67 carats, this is the largest cut stone in the world, having taken the title from the Cullinan I in 1985), the Niarchos Diamond (originally a 426.5-carat internally flawless stone, cut into several pieces), as well as the famed Taylor-Burton Diamond (a “mere” 68-carat pear-shaped stone, originally unearthed in 1966 as a 241-carat rough stone). Cullinan I and Cullinan II are the most prominent cut stones in the Crown Jewels of the UK.
Much as the new name would imply, this is the mine that yielded the largest rough stone in the world to date – the 3,106.75-carat Cullinan (unearthed in 1905, only three years after the mine’s establishment). The Cullinan Diamond Mine, previously known as the Premier Mine (renamed in late 2003), is an underground mine located in today’s Gauteng Province of South Africa, in the eponymous town of Cullinan (both the mine and the town were named after Thomas Cullinan, a diamond magnate of South African origin).