Image credit: TV Derana
The world's largest cluster of sapphire, valued at around £72mn weighing 510 kilograms and has the equivalent of 2.5 mn carats has been found at the home of a gem trader in Sri Lanka. The cluster was named the "Serendipity Sapphire”. The pale blue stone officially belongs to the gem trader Gamage as it was found at his property in Ratnapura, the gem capital of Sri Lanka, as per a report in mirror.co.uk.
Gamage said the stone was found by workers who alerted him to the extraordinary discovery. "The person who was digging the well alerted us about some rare stones. Later we stumbled upon this huge specimen."
The rock, which has now reportedly been transferred to a safe at the Bank of Ceylon, will have to be assessed by international experts before it can be safely sold to anyone interested.
"I have never seen such a large specimen before. This was probably formed around 400 million years ago," Dr Gamini Zoysa, a renowned gemmologist told the news outlet." It is a special star sapphire specimen, probably the biggest in the world."
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
