Exquisite 122 Carat Extremely Rare Blue Diamond Unearthed In South Africa!

How much can an inanimate piece of rock fetch you in terms of money? Think of it in terms of the rock being a shiny, crystalline and transparent beauty! Diamonds have always been extremely rare, pure, tiny, and expensive and the most exquisite jewelry form. The latest member to be added to the Diamond family is a 122 carat Diamond that is of the size of a strawberry and weighs a little less than three pounds. You would be easily richer by over 60 million pounds if you were the owner of this exceptional blue diamond that was dug out of the Cullinan mine in South Africa recently. The mine is reputed for unearthing giant gems and this diamond is no exception.

A similar blue gem from the mine was valued at 508000 pounds per carat earlier this year. Following the trend, this recent blue diamond is expected to command a price of 62 million pounds, which is a record for a rough stone. The owner of the diamond is Jersey based Petra Diamonds, whose shares rose by nearly 8 percent after Diamond discovery.

The traces of blue color in the diamond are attributed to the small amounts of element Boron trapped in the crystal structure, the pricing of the diamond being proportional to the blueness in the crystal. In industry, a blue stone weighing more than 100 carats is quite unheard of (a carat is one fifth of a gram). It becomes all the more special since blue gems are the rarest diamonds after red, which are almost never found.

However, these pricey gems have a notion pasted upon them for being unlucky to their owners. The most famous one being the story of the deep blue Hope Diamond that was held by various rich owners, all of who either got killed or went bankrupt. As such, it remains to be seen as to what kind of luck this newly found gem brings down upon its buyer.

For now, this blue diamond is being kept at a secret location under tight security and will be cut and polished after it is sold off in a private auction at Johannesburg.