An Australian man made the find of a lifetime when the ‘glimmer sticking out of the ground’ he saw on an evening stroll turned out to be a sapphire the size of a ‘child’s little fist’.
Matt Betteridge found the ‘very rare’ gem about 100 yards from the mining claim it lives on in the Reward Fossil Country at Rubyvale in the sapphire gem fields of Queensland.
At first, Mr. Betteridge was quite nonchalant about his find – so much so that he went back to camp to get his phone so he could film himself digging it up.
When he returned, he said, “I don’t think you know how much restraint it takes not to dig out these sapphires when I find them.”
If he’d had any idea of the value of what he was about to pull out of the ground, he certainly wouldn’t have lost sight of it for a moment.
That glimpse in the dirt turned out to be an 834-carat sapphire with an estimated value of $12,500.
All that glitters is not gold, as Shakespeare wrote. Sometimes it’s an 834 carat (pictured) sapphire worth $12,500 because it didn’t write
In his TikTok video which already has more than 250,000 views, Mr Betteridge first showed how someone else had recently searched the area but failed to notice the glittering prize just yards away.
“See the brilliance on that,” he said, moving the camera closer to the stone.
As he began to scratch around it, he began to realize how big it was and said, “Ooh, it has a size.”
“Oh, look at that. Holy dooley,” he said, exposing the rock to the light from his phone camera.
“What the hell, guys. I just surpassed my biggest again. Damn it. Sorry, I can’t even talk. Look at that.’
He rubbed the dirt off the sapphire to show it to viewers and estimated it to be 400 carats.
After saying that, the image on the video clip said ‘843ct!!!!! I need to work on my guestimations’.
Mr. Betteridge’s joy at his find then became infectious when he said, ‘Okay guys, I’m going home to clear this up.
“This is so huge!” he said, followed by more joyful laughter.
In a sequel video made the next day, after removing the dirt, Mr. Betteridge presented the sapphire ‘in all its glory’.
Matt Betteridge shows the ‘834 carats of beautiful Australian sapphire’ he found on an evening walk
As it sparkled in the sun, he said it was “834 carats of beautiful Australian sapphire.”
Then he turned it around in his hand to point out the crystals in it. “How great is that?” he said.
Mr. Betteridge then said it had an estimated value of $12,500.
“That’s going into the collection for now,” he said.
‘This is a nice specimen. Unfortunately won’t be for sale.’
However, he didn’t completely rule out the possibility.
“But again, everything has a price. You know what they say, money talks.
‘Beautiful. Let’s see what else I can get out of the dirt here.’
Matt Betteridge (pictured) doesn’t want his huge sapphire find cut into smaller pieces
Rubyvale is one of the largest sapphire-bearing areas in the world.
Gem hunters believe they have a better chance of finding something valuable after rain because it washes away some topsoil, and the region was inundated with heavy rainfall and flash flooding.
The Bureau of Meteorology said Rubyvale had 182 mm from Oct. 16 to Oct. 21.
Mr Betteridge encouraged others to see if he could match his great fortune.
“It was found on general fossil grounds…anyone can try it,” Mr Betteridge told the United States ABC.
“Get a fossing ticket and camping permit and try your luck.”
Helen Levonis of the Gemmological Association of Australia said Mr Betteridge’s find was very rarely seen in sapphires.
“When you get something… like an 830-carat sapphire, that’s phenomenal,” he said.
Mr Betteridge does not want his find cut into smaller pieces, which Ms Levonis agrees.
“These sapphires grew hundreds of thousands of years ago,” she said.
“There won’t be any more… and we have to respect that when you see something 800 carats.”
Daily Mail Australia has attempted to contact Mr Betteridge for further comment.