A one-of-a-kind diamond hosting another diamond inside, discovered by the world’s top producer by output, Alrosa (MCX:ALRS), at its Yyruba division in October, will remain in the company’s collection of rare finds.
The selection of unique diamonds, Alrosa said on Thursday, already includes a skull-shaped and a football-like rough diamonds that were mined in recent years.
The latest addition resembles a traditional Matryoshka or nesting doll, with one diamond freely moving around inside another.
Inclusions and flaws in diamonds are common and most have some
kind of flaw, or segments of mineral trapped inside. A diamond in a diamond,
however, is something it has never been described before, the company noted.
Even more intriguing is the manner in which the air space formed within the larger stone.
Scientists at the Alrosa’s Research and Development
Geological Enterprise have put forward various hypotheses of the origin of this
diamond. To date, the most probable version is that both internal and external
diamonds were formed at the same time, which is more than 800 million years ago.
Despite its complex structure, the Matryoshka diamond weighs
only 0.62 carats (0.124 grams) and measures 4.8 x 4.9 x 2.8 mm.
The internal cavity volume is 6 mm3 and the internal
crystal’s volume is 1.6 mm3 with an estimated weight of 0.02 carats (0.004
grams).
The inner diamond has a table shape and dimensions of
1.9×2.1×0.6 mm, Alrosa said.
Alrosa produced more than 43 million carats of diamonds in
2018 from its Russian mines, or about 27% of the world’s total. That’s 18% more
than its closest competitor, Anglo American’s De Beers.