YEKATERINBURG, April 10 (RIA Novosti) – A deposit of emerald crystals weighing an estimated 1.5 kilograms has been discovered in a lump of rock in Russia’s Sverdlovsk Region, Firat Nurmukhametov, director of the rocks center of the Urals Mining Institute, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Vladimir Dyagilev, an entrepreneur from the minerals-rich Urals city of Yekaterinburg, told journalists he had bought a lot at an auction at the Kaliningrad Amber Factory that included a lump of rock with emerald fragments in it.
Suspecting there might be more emeralds inside the rock, he gave it to specialists and asked them to chip away at it. They discovered the deposit of gemstones inside. Dyagilev said that the piece of rock weighs 2.3 kilograms, of which about 1.5 kilograms is emerald.
“It’s a unique specimen… I don’t think any museum has such a specimen in terms of the weight of or the quantity of the emeralds,” Nurmukhametov said.
Dyagilev said the fragment of rock containing the emeralds was originally valued at 300,000 rubles ($9,700), but those present at the press conference struggled to estimate its current value. Nurmukhametov said the amber factory had lost “millions of rubles” on the sale.
The rock will be put on show in an exhibition titled “The Emerald Room,” which will open on May 1 at the Sverdlovsk Region governor’s residence.