Luanda, Jul 28 (IANS): A rare 170-carat pink diamond, weighing 34 grams, thought to be the largest in the last 300 years, has been discovered in Angola.

The pink stone has been named the "Lulo Rose", after the mine in Angola where it was found.

It will be sold later this year through an international tender to be conducted by Angolan state-owned diamond trading firm Sodium, reports Xinhua news agency.

This is the fifth largest diamond from a total of 27 diamonds with more than 100 carats extracted to date in the Lulo mining project.

In 2016, the operation yielded the largest ever diamond recovered in Angola, a 404-carat white stone later named the "4th February Stone".

The country's Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo said the discovery of the pink diamond continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining and demonstrates the potential and rewards for commitment and investment in the country's growing diamond mining industry.

Pink diamonds are extremely rare, but the same physical attributes that make the stones scarce also make them very tough, and not easy to work into shapes.

The largest known pink diamond is the Daria-i-Noor, discovered in India, which experts believe was cut from an even larger stone.

The largest rough diamond of any colour ever recorded is the Cullinan diamond, found in South Africa in 1905.

Weighing 3,107 carats, more than half a kilogram, it was cut into 105 different stones.

The largest of these, the Cullinan I, is the biggest clear cut diamond in the world and forms part of the UK Crown Jewels.