With discovery of the ‘Beating Heart’, India gets its own ‘Matryoshka’ diamond

The 0.329-carat diamond, which has a smaller diamond caught inside it, is now included among the world’s rarest diamonds, along with the Russian ‘Matryoshka’

A company called VD Global in Surat, Gujarat has found a “diamond within a diamond”, a rare find to date. The 0.329-carat diamond, which has a smaller diamond caught inside it, has been given the moniker ‘Beating Heart’ by the company, which suggested the name based on the first reactions of those who found it.

The stone was part of a package of roughs. V D Global discovered the 0.329 carat D-coloured 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 VD Global. “We named it ‘Beating Heart’ based on our initial feelings upon seeing the unique stone,” Vaghasiya added.

The stone is now included among rare diamonds, along with the Russian Matryoshka diamond, according to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council.

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 on 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.

Notably, Russian diamond miners had earlier found a diamond that had another diamond locked up inside of it, much like a Matryoshka doll. It was the 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.

Courtesy: Wion
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