The 10 Most Valuable Gemstones; Worth Up to $300,000 a gram!.

The most valuable gemstone in the world is worth a whopping $300,000 US dollars a gram, with this figure probably representing an underestimate. I am not referring to emeralds, rubies, wolfnite, tanzanite, or a sub-variety thereof, which, on their own, are still incredibly valuable gemstones that are worth thousands of dollars per gram. This is why when I found a few of these stones while prospecting, I was rightfully thrilled. Yet, despite the immense value of these stones, none of these aforementioned gemstones are even remotely as valuable or as rare as the planet's 10 most valuable gemstones. So, which 10 of the currently known 6,118 minerals and their many, many sub-varieties are the most valuable? As a geologist with many years of experience finding gemstones in the absolute middle of nowhere, I will now answer this question. But, I will not include diamonds or their sub-varieties because, in my opinion, they are both overvalued and more common than you think. Starting at number 10, we have an incredibly valuable gemstone which was not only first found in Canada, but is still found there today. What I'm referring to is pudratite, a distinctively hexagonal and bright pink gemstone which generally sells for around $4,000 a carat. For reference, a carat is a measurement of weight where 1 carat weighs 1 fifth of a gram. It was first found at the 124 million year old ancient pluton known as Saint-Hilaire east of Montreal, although today most of the best specimens are found in Burma. The 9th most valuable gemstone is Benitoite, so named after its initial discovery and best locality in the Benito County of California. It is worth around $4,250 a carat. This stunningly blue gemstone that often forms triangular shaped crystals is incredibly rare as this gemstone actually needs another gemstone to form from. It can only form from altered serpentine in veins of a blue schist, which, under very specific and unusual circumstances can form this gemstone. Benitoite has a dispersion index which is generally higher than that of a diamond, meaning it displays a high amount of a fire-like effect from splitting light. In 8th we have Pryba tourmalines, which are an unusually deep cyan colored gemstone generally worth $5,600 a carat. While tourmaline as a whole is fairly common, non-black varieties of it are not. As for blue, I have never seen this color occur in a tourmaline in my more than a decade of prospecting as it requires a significant amount of copper to substitute into the mineral's crystal structure. The 7th most valuable gemstone was originally found in the Moosgrave ranges of South Australia from which it gets its name, moosgravite. This absurdly hard gemstone is worth around $6,000 a carat, and has a purple gray coloration in its most prized specimens. The largest faceted gem grade moosgravite stone weighs less than 5 grams, and as a whole reportedly less than 10 gem grade specimens of this rare mineral are found every year. Next on our list, the gemstone serendibite is worth around $9,000 a carat. While opaque black instances of this rare gemstone do exist, it is most prized during incredibly rare instances that is both transparent and has a greenish blue color. Red beryl is the single most valuable gemstone which can be found in the United States, being worth $13,000 a carat. Red beryl is the rarest and most valuable variety of beryl, which is even more valuable than emerald or aquamarine. Red beryl forms when substitutions of manganese occur in its crystal structure, and is so rare that only one red beryl crystal is found for every 150,000 diamonds that are found. Coming in at number 4, we have the gemstone alexandrite, a rare form of chrysoberyl worth around $17,500 per carat. What distinguishes this gemstone from more typical chrysoberyl is that it changes color based on the light source, turning green in sunlight and reddish purple under incandescent light. Grandiadiorite is the third most valuable world gemstone, having a bright blue green color and with the best stones generally coming from Madagascar, it is worth around $26,000 per carat. Painite is an absurdly rare deep red with a black tint mineral which for a time was the world's most valuable gemstone, being valued at a whopping $55,000 a carat. Only being found in Burma, only 3 crystals of it were found over a 50 year time span. However, its value was later surpassed by another Burma gemstone which is so rare that it is tough to even price it. You see, only one gemstone of kayawithuite has ever been found, weighing 1.61 carats. That is it! No other crystals have yet been found to the best of my knowledge, and as a result, this bismuth antimony gemstone is estimated to have a value of around $60,000 a carat. Be sure to let me know in the comments section below if you want to see more gemstone or mineral related videos!