Surat firm stumbles into rarest of rare ‘diamond within diamond’

SURAT: This beating heart is a heart-stopper of a diamond. Unique, like its moniker, a smaller diamond trapped within its cavity has identified this stone as the rarest of rare among its kind. What adds spice to the find is that the stone, part of a parcel of roughs, was discovered by a manufacturer from the Diamond City, who "suggested it be named the 'Beating Heart' based on the first feelings upon witnessing the stone".
The 0.329 carat D-coloured diamond, was found by V D Global 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 Vallabh Vaghasiya, chairman of V D Global, a De Beers Group Sightholder.

"We named it 'Beating Heart' based on our initial feelings upon seeing the unique stone," Vaghasiya told TOI. VDG, a diamond manufacturer that operates from the city and Mumbai and has business spread globally, shared details with De Beers and sent the stone for further analysis at its facility in Maidenhead, UK.
Various analyses were done through instruments developed by DBGI including preliminary analysis, optical and scanning electron microscopy etc. De Beers Institute of Diamonds (DBID) recently announced the find and claimed that it is now part of rare diamonds that include Matryoshka, the first of such diamonds that was discovered in Siberia, Russia.
Matryoshka was named after Russian dolls and mined in Yakutia of Nyurba in Alrosa. It remained the first such in the history of world diamond mining until 2019.
"I have never seen anything like the 'Beating Heart' during my three decades in the diamond sector," said Samantha Sibley, technical educator, De Beers Group Ignite.