GEMOLOGY

India gets its own 'Matryoshka' diamond in the form of this rarest of rare find in Gujarat

Surat, Gujarat Edited By: Heena SharmaUpdated: Apr 16, 2023

Image of Beating Heart from Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council Photograph:(Twitter)

Rarest of rare diamond found in India's Gujarat: The stone is now included among rare diamonds, along with Matryoshka diamond. Russian diamond miners had found a diamond that had another diamond locked up inside of it, much like a Matryoshka doll.

A company VD Global in Surat city of the Indian state of Gujarat found a "diamond within a diamond", a rarest of all finds till now. The 0.329-carat diamond has been given the moniker "Beating Heart" by the company, who suggested the name based on the first feelings upon witnessing the stone.

The stone is now included among rare diamonds, along with Matryoshka diamond, according to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council. For those who are unaware, Russian diamond miners had found a diamond that had another diamond locked up inside of it, much like a Matryoshka doll. It was first of such rare diamonds that had been discovered in Siberia, Russia. Matryoshka diamond remained the first such diamond in the history of world diamond mining until 2019.

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The latest finding from India's Gujarat is distinctive. This diamond has a smaller diamond caught inside of it, a rare of its type. Surat has one of the world's largest diamond processing centers. Here, many world's diamonds are cut and polished.

The stone was part of a package of roughs. V D Global discovered the 0.329 carat D-colored diamond sometime in October 2022.

"While examining roughs at our Surat facility, we found this rare piece of diamond that had another smaller piece trapped inside, but moving freely, which we had never come across earlier," said media reports quoting Vallabh Vaghasiya, chairman of V D Global. “We named it 'Beating Heart' based on our initial feelings upon seeing the unique stone,” Vaghasiya added.

A De Beers Group Sightholder, VDG Global is a diamond manufacturer with operations in Surat and Mumbai with a worldwide business presence. The company informed De Beers and the stone was taken to the company's laboratory in Maidenhead, UK, for further testing.

Preliminary analysis, optical and scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and fluorescence and phosphorescence imaging were only a few of the tests carried out using the tools created by De Beers Group Institute (DBGI).

De Beers Institute of Diamonds (DBID), part of De Beers Group, recently announced the find and claimed that it is now part of the small group of rare diamonds.

"I have never seen anything like the 'Beating Heart' during my three decades in the diamond sector. Using the expertise of De Beers Group, we can shed light onto the formation and structure of this natural specimen and share these insights with a wider community of diamond professionals," Samantha Sibley, technical educator, De Beers Group Ignite told media outlets.