from the how-to-steal-a-rock-in-14-easy-steps dept.
The BBC is running a story World's largest blue star sapphire 'found in Sri Lanka'. This single stone has been certified as weighing 1404.49 carats (about 280g; nearly 10 ounces) with an estimated value of approximately $100m. By comparison, Sri Lanka's entire gem industry "is worth at least £70m ($103m) annually." The previous record holder weighed 1395 carats.
What I found even more interesting was the story behind it; also from the BBC: How the world's biggest sapphire grew so large.
First off, what is a sapphire? According to the article:
"Sapphires are so hard because they are formed from corundum, an aluminium oxide. "Corundum is the hard gritty stuff used as an abrasive in emery paper," says [University of Cambridge mineral scientist Simon] Redfern.
"If you add just a trace of iron and titanium to the mixture of aluminum and oxygen from which the corundum is growing, it forms as sapphire. So sapphire is 'dirty' corundum - corundum with a trace of iron and titanium."
So now we know the ingredients to a blue sapphire, what is the recipe?
Making sapphires is a lengthy process. This particular sapphire would have formed within the rocks of Sri Lanka's highlands.
[...] The rocks are mostly granites, which form when molten magma cools and solidifies. But they have been subjected to intense heat and pressure.
"The granites have been dated as almost two billion years old, and were subsequently squeezed and re-worked in a massive metamorphic mountain-building episode that happened more than 500 million years ago," says Redfern. "Temperatures and pressures deep within the roots of these mountains would have reached more than 900C and over 9000 atmospheres pressure."
And now, you know!
(Score: 2) by Covalent on Monday January 11 2016, @05:57PM
'Found in Sri Lanka' in quotes both times. It makes it seem like larger star sapphires have been found previously, but in locations other than Sri Lanka.
Lose the quotes...they're only for sarcasm.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2016, @06:08PM
I don't know what you're talking about. I have personally "found sapphires" in various locations such as "in Sri Lanka" and "behind a Denny's". It's "true".
(Score: 4, Informative) by aclarke on Monday January 11 2016, @06:21PM
The BBC puts quotes around phrases it is attributing to others. For example, in this case, I'm sure the BBC hasn't ordered an independent investigation as to whether this sapphire was actually found in Sri Lanka. They are reporting what they have been told, rather than what they have verified.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2016, @06:49PM
The BBC puts quotes around phrases it is attributing to others.
Those wacky Brits! No one ever uses 'quotes' to denote that the information is attributed to others. That's never been done in the whole history of the universe. Quotation marks (why do they call them that?) are only used to denote sarcasm. Ever.
(Score: 2) by Covalent on Monday January 11 2016, @06:59PM
Thanks for the info!
That said, you'd think the whole phrase would then be in quotes. "Found in Sri Lanka" is pretty useless without "World's Largest Star Sapphire". Admittedly our language is about as inefficient and foolish as can be imagined...
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday January 11 2016, @09:12PM
When will precious gemstones stop being so precious? Maybe in past centuries when their composition was mysterious and impossible to replicate with the equipment of the day, but now we know how such things are formed, and replication of the proper conditions is perhaps difficult but far from impossible. Not yet remotely possible with a 3D printer, but someday, perhaps yes.
Lot of people must have bird brains to still be so enthralled by shiny like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2016, @09:28PM
Companies like Djeva in Switzerland have been mass-producing synthetic gemstones for decades. Pressure is not even necessary for formation of sapphire, just high temperature (Verneuil process).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2016, @09:30PM
Rare objects like this are valuable solely because of their rarity. This item is unique, much like how the original Mona Lisa is worth far more than any replicas of it.
Man-made sapphires are readily available for people who don't care about this kind of item. They have all sorts of practical applications too.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday January 11 2016, @10:04PM
There's a slight problem with your assertion about rarity. Now, I don't know just how good man-made sapphires are, but if they can be made just like the natural ones, then the natural ones are no longer "rare". Just because some salesman claims something is natural and not man-made doesn't make it true, so in a market where artificial gemstones can be made identical to naturally-formed ones, then the natural ones are going to quickly fall in price to whatever equivalent artificial ones sell for (since artificial ones do require some work and probably expensive equipment to make, they won't be free).
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday January 11 2016, @10:54PM
It's the same as brand name goods. You can easily counterfeit , but rich/vain people still want the prestige of paying for "the real thing".
(There are some brands that are known for quality; I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about brands that are functionally equivalent to purchasing a decent shirt at Walmart and slapping a logo on it.)
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(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday January 12 2016, @10:09PM
But the problem is, as I mentioned before, how do you tell if it's "real" or not? With counterfeit electronic goods, for instance, it's not that hard: usually the fake is inferior in some measurable way, sometimes in a really big way (I got a phone charger off Ebay once that was a fake, and some of the text was misspelled!). Even if the exterior looks the same, tearing it open and comparing to a known-good model will usually show the counterfeit is poorly made in comparison--there've been a bunch of blog articles showing tear-downs of phone chargers proving this.
But if it's something like a shirt, and it isn't obviously inferior, then how do you know what you're getting isn't counterfeit? Do you just trust the word of the huckster trying to sell it to you? With a $20 T-shirt at a major retailer, maybe that's good enough (esp. since many times, clothing retailers have exclusive rights to sell certain brands). With a gemstone, it seems pretty silly because then you're limiting yourself to certain retailers (like Tiffany's), which probably also means that the gemstone has almost zero resale value because it'll have no value on the used market over the "fakes", so you're effectively showing off how much money you can blow on something, and even there it's pretty dumb: is a woman going to carry around her Tiffany's Certificate of Authenticity for the ring on her finger?
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday January 12 2016, @10:45PM
It's "real" because they paid the money for it. This is all psychological and has no basis in "reality" or "objectivity".
Consider Apple, for example. Part of the experience of buying a new iGood is lining up a day or two before the release, camping out with fellow iPeople. By all rational measures, there is absolutely no point in camping out a day for a new iGood, but logic has no part here; the iPeople WANT to camp out, march into the sterile metal-and-glass iStore cheering, and walk away triumphantly with their new iGood.
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2016, @11:06PM
Of course they are. The availability of man-made gemstones has no impact whatsoever on the rarity of "natural" ones.
No kidding. Like with any rare item, swindlers will try to sell fakes as the real thing.
Non sequitur. There can still be a market for "originals", unless the counterfeits are so rampant that it's literally impossible to have any certainty which stones are the real deal. I don't think that man-made versus natural is seen as a big problem in the gem trade (but I am not a gem trader). Man-made gemstones tend to be "better" than the natural stones: they will have no defects.