An Australian has shared the incredible moment he discovered a rare gemstone while hiking in the outback.
Professional sapphire miner Matt Betteridge revealed his discovery of a 394-carat sapphire on TikTok last month.
Betteridge and his partner Amber run their family business Betteridge Sapphires from the heart of the state’s mining region in Central Queensland.
‘I’m in a place called Reward, if you guys are heading this way. But in every area there is some good rock,” Betteridge says in the video.
Betteridge said the area had been inundated by rain and he decided to search a little more before the wet weather set in.
Footage showed him digging with his hands before making the discovery.
‘Look at that! Wow!’ he exclaimed.
‘It’s getting bigger!’
Professional sapphire miner Matt Betteridge revealed his discovery of a 394-carat sapphire on TikTok last month.
Footage showed him digging with his hands before making the discovery.
‘I just want to see how big this thing is, come on, wow, look at that!’ I’ll tell you what, luck has been on my side lately.
Betteridge then pulled the sapphire out of the ground.
‘Wow, look at those guys!’ said.
‘This place has been known for big bombs in the past, but wow, guys… that’s huge!
“So I’ll have to clean it before I see any color in it.”
The video shows Ms Betteridge holding the clean sapphire in front of the camera.
“It’s all clean here… 394 carats of Australian sapphire,” he said.
“Right now it’s summer here and the heat is terrible.”
Betteridge said the 394-carat sapphire (pictured) was “waiting to be found.”
“But if you can handle a little heat, we’ll also have these incredible storms that bring out the sapphires.”
Mr Betteridge said yahoo he had been “for a walk” through the gem fields after the rain and “saw something shining on the road.”
He said the 394-carat sapphire was “waiting to be found.”
Betteridge said he and Betteridge had decided not to cut the sapphire because of its commercial value of only $1,000.
“It’s not going to become a big jewel or anything like that,” he said.
‘It will stay exactly as it is because it is quite an interesting crystal structure.
‘It will remain that way because of its natural beauty. “I want to cut it because it is sacrilege because it is very beautiful.”
The couple regularly posts their sapphire discoveries on social media.
Earlier this year, her seven-year-old son Riley found a 14.5-carat sapphire worth up to $10,000 just 200 meters from their home in the middle of Queensland’s gem fields in Rubyvale. near Rockhampton.
Footage of his incredible find has racked up almost 3 million views on TikTok, with many viewers leaving congratulatory messages for the seven-year-old.
“Surely that earned him a day off from school,” one social media user joked.