Alrosa discovers 30,000 tiny diamonds in a 30mm rock

A 30mm rock, red and green in colour was discovered by Alrosa at its Udachnaya diamond mine, and is said to contain 30,000 diamonds - a concentration 1m times higher than normal, reports say.

The Udachnaya mine is located in the Sakha Republic with a 600 metres depth is the third deepest open-pit mine in the world.

After undergoing scans with X-rays, the diamonds in the stone were noted to be only around 1mm and are octahedral in shape, making them too small for gem usage. The rock has been donated to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The rock catches interest for the high concentration of tiny diamonds and for understanding further the mystery of the diamond formation.