Some time back, ALROSA had announced the rare find of a "diamond in a diamond", much like the famed Russian nesting dolls. The stone was named as the “Matryoshka” diamond.

The Company announced yesterday that it has decided to keep the unique diamond in its collection of rare finds. “The collection already includes a skull-shaped and a football-shaped rough diamond that the company mined in recent years,” ALROSA stated, adding that its collection of rare stones is not for sale.

“The diamond with another one moving freely inside it was discovered at the Nyurba Mining and Processing Division,” said ALROSA elaborating on the find. “The experts have never seen such stones in the history of diamond mining. Usually some parts of a mineral are replaced by others without a cavity. On the other hand, regular diamonds may have small gas-liquid inclusions. However, such large cavities have never been found in crystals before.”

The Company said, sharing the opinion of scientists, it is likely that the Matryoshka diamond is more than 800 million years old. “Despite its complex structure, it weighs only 0.62 carats (0.124 grams) and has a maximum size of 4.8 x 4.9 x 2.8 mm,” ALROSA revealed. “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.”

While ALROSA’s scientists working at its Research and Development Geological Enterprise have put forward various hypotheses on the origin of this diamond, the most likely one is that both internal and external diamonds were formed at the same time, it is felt.

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