Workers accidentally discovered the largest sapphire in the world while digging a well in the garden of a resident in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka. The stone weighs 510 kilograms, and experts estimate its value at around £72 million, and it has been transferred to a safe in a bank in Colombo. The British newspaper "The Sun" reported that the owner of the property where the giant sapphire was found, who only revealed his first name, Gamaji, stated: "One of the workers who was digging a well in my garden informed us about some stones that looked shiny."
The extraction of the precious stone was followed by a process to remove impurities so that gem experts could analyze its quality and certify it. The National Gem and Jewelry Authority in Sri Lanka commented briefly on the "valuable discovery" out of fear that many people would start digging in the area where the stone was found, but they stated, "It is the largest in the world, measuring 100 centimeters in length, 72 centimeters in width, and 50 centimeters in height." According to gemologist Dr. Jamini Zuwisa, the stone could be about 400 million years old.
