Ranking of the world's most expensive gemstones

Ranking of the world’s most expensive gemstones – diamonds are not on the list.Gemstones are very eye-catching because of their dazzling and gorgeous appearance. At the same time, the great scarcity of some gemstones makes their market value high. I have to feel that nature is a very magical creator and artist. Rare treasures that people are obsessed with.

Now let me introduce to you the top ten most expensive gemstones in the world.

No. 10: Black Opal

Black opal generally refers to the precious opal with black or gray body color and color-changing effect, which is a precious variety of opal. A brightly coloured opal on a dark embryonic shade we call black opal. Black opal is produced in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, and is the most famous and expensive variety of opal.

Black opal does not mean that it is completely black, but that its embryonic body tone is darker than that of opal which is lighter in tone. Natural black opals are the royal family of opals, high quality black opals are expensive due to their shape and rarity.

Opal is a product of Australia’s semi-desert “outback”. In such areas, seasonal rainfall soaks the dry surface, seeping into ancient subterranean rock, bringing with it dissolved silica. During the drought, a large amount of water evaporates, and the sediment of solid silica remains between the rock crevices and the underground sedimentary rock layers, and the silica deposits form opal.

The chemical composition of opal is SiO2·nH2O. In the structure of opal, silica is a nearly equal sphere arranged regularly in three-dimensional space. The special structure of opal determines its color-changing ability and color-changing characteristics. The diameter of the sphere, the distance between the spheres and the viewing angle directly determine the color of the opal spots.

Black opal costs around $2000 per carat

No. 9: Silica boron potassium sodalite

Poudretteite The pink gemstone was first discovered in the mid-1960s at Mont St. Hilaire, Quebec, Canada, but it was not given a name at the time; it was not considered a new mineral until 1987 Named in honor of the Poudrette family who discovered it, it is named “Poudretteite”, which is translated as “alkali borosilicate” in “Chinese Translation of Canadian Prototype Mineral Species Name”, and the English homophonic name is “Poudretteite”. Many people in China call it silicotite according to the chemical formula KNa2B3Si12O30

The largest sodalite to date.

Sodalite was first discovered in Quebec, Canada in 1960, and was not fully studied until 2003. It is a very precious pink gemstone. But because this gem is so rare, very few people know it.

In November 2000, an Italian businessman bought a pink rough stone in the Pain Pyit area of Mogok, Myanmar, which was later cut into 3-carat facets and sent to the Gübelin Laboratory for identification. This is the first gemstone from Myanmar A sample of grade Poundrel stone. By 2004, only 10 rough Poudretteite stones had been found, the largest rough stone of 22 carats was finally cut to 9.41ct faceted gemstones cut from 21.22ct rough stones, and only about 30 rough Poudretteite stones were produced until mid-2007.

Among the top ten most expensive stones in the world, the sodalite is about 3,000 US dollars per carat, and the more than 1ct of the sodalite is very rare. The brighter the color and the cleaner the interior, the more expensive the gemstone, and the unit price per carat is more than 6,000 US dollars. The stone was first discovered in Canada. The color is very attractive pink. It is understood that the Mohs hardness has reached about 5 degrees. It is a gem, but it is now extinct.

Since there are very few records of this kind of mineral gemstone, here is a case of this gemstone: the world’s very rare gemstone, Poudretteite, the rough stone is more than 8 carats, and only 2.82 carats are cut out, GIA certificate. This gem is too rare.

Sodalite is about $3000 per carat

8th place: blue cone stone

Blue cone stone was first discovered in a water area in San Benito County, California, USA, and it looks fluorescent and has a strong sense of color. Gem-grade blue cone ore crystals are only produced in San Benito County, California, and the output is very rare.

The dispersion rate is higher than that of diamonds, but the fire like diamonds cannot be seen
blue cone mine.

English benitoite,

Crystal system: hexagonal system,

Glass luster to sub-adamantine luster;

Zoom in to check: Ribbon, ghosting.

High dispersion, 0.046, diamond dispersion ratio 0.044, part of the fire is easily masked by body color.

Blue cone ore, mainly produced in serpentine associated with column spar, sodium zeolite, etc.

When discovered in 1906, it was once mistaken for a sapphire. At present, the only source of gem-quality blue cone ore is San Benito, California, USA. Although samples of blue cone ore are also found in Arkansas and Japan, it is difficult to cut them into gemstones.

Faceted gemstones have a distinctive appearance, but the gemstones are generally small, clean and flawless faceted loose stones are rarely heavier than 1ct, and are mostly used for collection.

In addition, azurite fluoresces bright blue under short-wave ultraviolet light, while sapphire is inert or weakly fluorescent.

Common colors are blue, violet-blue, light blue, colorless or white with rings are common, and purple and pink are relatively rare.

The price of blue cone stone is about 3000~4000 US dollars per carat

No. 7: Taffy Stone

Taffy was discovered in 1945 by gemologist Richard Earl of Taffy and is a very rare collection of gemstones. In addition to producing gem-quality crystals in Sri Lanka, this gem also produces top-quality crystals in Tanzania and Madagascar.

All the rarity of taffy stone has a lot to do with it being a colored gemstone. It comes in fuchsia, brown-green, as well as blue, purple, black and other colors. The appearance of each one is very full, and the overall luster is transparent and shining. It belongs to a kind of hexagonal crystal system. Although there is no optical effect, it does not have any ultraviolet effect. In taffy, the most common color is purple.

The only weak point is that the toughness of the gem is not particularly good. If it is subjected to a strong impact after all, it is easy to crack. In the gem, it is also a very fragile one. Blue and light blue can be seen under a dichroic mirror; under fluorescent lamps, there is no fluorescence at long wavelengths and no fluorescence at short wavelengths; absorption bands in the red region can be seen using a hand-held spectroscope. Taffeta is relatively dense, with a hardness of 8-9 and a density of 3.60g/cm3 (water density method).

Red spinel and taffy can only see birefringence with conventional identification methods. Double images are seen under a magnifying glass or microscope. If there is double refraction, it is taffy.

Taffeta costs around $6,000 per carat

6th place: sapphire

The color of borosilicate is mostly blue-green, and the color is mostly in the transmission state, which is very glossy. It was discovered in southern Madagascar in 1902 by the French mineralogist Alfred Lacroix. The output of magnesia is very small, and most of them have poor transparency and many internal impurities. It is very rare to be called perfect, so the price of gem-grade magnesia is even more staggering.

The price of borosilicate per carat is about 8000 US dollars

5th place: red beryl

Red beryl, also known as beryl, is deep pink, rose red to reddish-brown. It belongs to the beryl group of minerals and is produced in Mount Thomas, Utah, USA. The first piece of red beryl was discovered in California in 1974. Due to the difficulty of mining, the price is very expensive.

Red beryl costs about $10,000 per carat

4th place: Alexandrite

Alexandrite, also known as alexandrite and alexandrite, was called alexandrite in ancient times. Alexandrite has obvious pleochroism, it will continuously change its color with the change of light, and it is composed of very rare minerals, so it is included in the list of the top ten most expensive gemstones in the world.

Alexandrite costs around $10,000 per carat

3rd place: Tanzanite

Tanzanite, also known as zoisite, is a silicate mineral that was used as a decorative material in the early days. Since the discovery of this blue-violet transparent crystal in Tanzania in 1967, its place in the gemstone industry has grown. Because this gem is very rare, it takes decades to mine, and the supply is very limited, so the price is very expensive.

Tanzanite costs around $15,000 per carat

2nd place: Emerald

Jadeite is a stony polycrystalline aggregate of jade grade formed under geological action. Chinese people are very familiar with jadeite, and it is also a very traditional jewelry. In China, the transaction of jadeite is quite special. Usually, the carat weight is not used for valuation, and the price varies greatly depending on the fineness.

The weight unit price is converted according to the market price, and the price of jadeite per carat starts at at least 20,000 US dollars.

1st place: red silicon boro aluminum monetite

Alias: aluminum boron zirconite

Category: calcium zirconium

Bifold rate: 0.029.

Luminescence: uniaxial crystal, negative light, pleochroic, bright red in the direction parallel to the optical axis, slightly brownish pale orange in the vibration direction perpendicular to the optical axis

Transparency: Transparent

Hardness: 7.5～8

Solubility: insoluble in acid and difficult to be melted by sodium carbonate or sodium pyrosulfate

Other Features: Relative Density: 4.0

Important places of origin: Mogok and Kachin states in Myanmar

Has a weak chromium absorption spectrum.

It has reddish fluorescence under long-wave ultraviolet light and bright red fluorescence under short-wavelength light.

Painite was discovered in gem placer mines in Mogok, Myanmar in 1951. Painite is only produced in gem placer mines in Mogok and Kachin, Myanmar, and is extremely Rare high-quality gemstone, one of the hardest minerals to find and considered the rarest on Earth. Only 25 small crystals and 1 double-sided crystal have been found on Earth. Named after gem collector A.C.D. Pain, it was recognized internationally as a new gemstone in 1957.

Collector A.C.D. Pain and the British Museum reportedly have a 1.7-gram specimen in what it claims is the largest specimen of this mineral in the world.

It has broken a number of world records and is composed of extremely rare and rare minerals. At present, there are only two cut multi-faceted monetites that can be seen in the global market.