Guinness alert: World’s largest emerald weighs…
The world’s largest uncut diamond weighing 7,525 carats (1.505 kg/3 lbs and 5.09 oz) has been unearthed in Zambia and subsequently made it to record books. Discovered geologs Manas Banerjee and Richard Kapeta and their team in July 2021, the emerald was traced to the Kagem mine located in Zambia’s Copperbelt province, according to Guinness World Records.
Given the ‘horn’ on top of the emerald, it has been named Chipembele which means rhino in local indigenous dialect of the Bemba people of Zambia.
Previously too, two huge emeralds were found at the same site — Insofu, or “elephant”, discovered in 2010 and Inkalamu, or “lion”, which was found in 2018. While Insofu weighed 6,225 carats (1.245 kg/2 lbs and 11.92 oz), Inkalamu comes in third at 5,655 carats (1.131 kg/2 lbs and 7.89 oz), not quite rivalling the size of Chipembele.
According to Guinness World Records, all of these enormous gems were found at Kagem, an emerald mine owned Gemfields in partnership with the Zambian government’s Industrial Development Corporation.
The discovery of Chipembele follows two other huge emeralds previously found at the same site (Source: Guinness World Records.com)
Guinness site reported that “Chipembele formed under near perfect conditions, allowing the combination of the elements to crystallise into large, dinct hexagonal crystal structures with glassy surfaces”.
Chipembele was acquired in November 2021 at Gemfields’ high-quality emerald auction with a portion of the sale proceeds donated to the North Luangwa Conservation Programme in Zambia, which aids black rhinoceros conversation efforts.
It was verified Guinness on April 22, 2022.
“We wanted to do something really special to celebrate our relationship with Africa and African gemstones and there is nothing more suitable than breaking the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the largest uncut emerald. We are here to inspire people worldwide and introduce them to the exquisite beauty and rarity of natural gemstones – especially natural gemstones from Africa. We want to pass our knowledge and love for natural gemstones to future generations.” – Avraham Eshed, President of Eshed- Gemstar told the site.
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