Record-Breaking Ruby Gem

The Dream Ruby

In July 2022, the international mining company Fura Gems brought to light the largest gem-quality Ruby ever found. In the now-legendary Montepuez mine, in Mozambique, a gem-quality Ruby with a monster weight of 101 carats was extracted. The mining company called it “Estrela de Fura”, which, in Portuguese, means “the star of Fura”.

A long-considered cutting

Fura Gems had initially considered selling the rough Ruby, but since this Ruby was so extraordinary, it decided to cut it to realize its full potential. The Estrela de Fura showed the world the quality of the Rubies produced by Fura mines. Traditionally, Mozambican rubies are known for their red color with a tendency toward dark and low fluorescence, but Fura’s Rubies have a more sumptuous color, with very high fluorescence, similar to that often displayed by the famous Rubies from the legendary Mogok source.

Record-Breaking Ruby Gem at Sotheby’s

The Estrela de Fura is in fact still a gem-quality Ruby of an impressive weight of 55.22 carats and was sold in June 2023 for the exorbitant figure of 34.8 million dollars by Sotheby’s, setting a world record auction price for any colored precious stone. Dev Shetty, co-founder and C.E.O. of Fura Gems, declared that a portion (2 percent) of the money from the sale of this special gem will go toward establishing a school in Mozambique, the country where the Star of Fura was extracted.

With a value of 630,288 dollars per carat, it remains below in per-carat value to the legendary Sunrise Ruby, the Gem of Gems. The Star of Fura’s pre-auction estimate was over 30 million dollars, and it was without a doubt one of the two record lots at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction, held on June 8 in New York.