Diamond company Rio Tinto will hold an auction for the best and largest diamonds it has harvested in the last year, collecting at a single sale the most valuable stones produced from all its mines globally.



The "Specials" tender features 94 lots of rough diamonds mined at its holdings in Zimbabwe, Canada and Australia. Only stones measuring more than 10.8 carats are considered for the tender. Twenty-six of the diamonds weight in at over 20 carats.



The highlight of the sale is a 24.15 carat white diamond from Rio's Argyle mine in Australia. The northern Canadian Diavik mine's most impressive contribution to the sale will be a 22.53-carat white diamond, while Zimbabwe's Murowa mine's strongest strong at the auction will be a 35.41-carat fancy yellow colored diamond. Rio has given the special diamonds the names of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses: Athena, Selene and Helios.