The 10 Most Expensive Minerals in the World

The rarest gemstone in the world is Jadeite, which costs about $3 million per carat, and the world’s most expensive gemstone is the Blue Diamond, which costs $3.72 million per carat.

What makes the Jadeite extremely expensive is the gemstones’ vivid colors and how rare they are. Jadeite gemstones can be of numerous shades of green, with some having a greenish white core and others white with greenish patches.

It is hard to believe that each stone is distinct yet bound by the characteristic traits of the Jadeite. Jadeite is a constituent of the gemstone Jade, which is regarded as a semi precious mineral.

Ancient civilizations used jadeite to make axes and ornaments. Jadeite jewels were auctioned off for an amazing price of 9.3 million in the mid 1990s Jadeite has been immensely popular selling at auction.

The most expensive minerals in the world are graded on the basis of their scarcity, composition, color, and clarity. While some of these stones are incredibly tough and suitable for use in expensive drilling machinery, others are delicate and can only be utilized in luxury jewelry.

Please continue reading to check out the 15 most expensive minerals, along with a chemical breakdown of their constituents, the mines they’re sourced from, and the properties that skyrocket their prices.

List of Most Expensive Minerals

Below is a compilation of the 15 most pricy minerals available globally:

1. Jadeite – $3 Million Per Carat.
2. Blue Diamond – $3.72 million per carat.
3. Red Diamonds – $2 million per carat.
4. Serendibite – $1.8 Million Per Carat.
5. Blue Garnet – $1.5 Million Per Carat.
6. Painite – $55,000 Per Carat.
7. Taaffeite- $35,000 per carat.
8. Grandidierite- $20,000 per carat.
9. Alexandrite- $12,000 per carat.
10. Gold – $1,790 Per Ounce.
11. Platinum – $1050 Per Ounce.
12. Rubies – $435 Per Gram.
13. Diamond – $1,800 Per Carat.
14. Rhodium – $401 Per Gram.
15. Red Beryl – $10000 per carat.

If you are doing background research on expensive minerals or wish to understand rich people’s spending patterns, you are in the right place. We have tips for you.

#1. Jadeite – $3 Million Per Carat.

Pyroxene minerals, like jadeite, possess the chemical formula NaAlSi₂O₆. Having a specific gravity of ~3.4, it is tough, dense, and maintains a Mohs hardness rating of 6.5 to 7.0. It is primarily known for its green and white shades, but can be found in various colors as well.

Jadeite forms exclusively in subduction zones where continental rock metamorphoses under high pressure with comparatively lower temperature.

Jadeite is the leading mineral found in jade. The most expensive kind of jade is highly sought after in China.

Northeastern Myanmar is the primary source of jadeite, supplying jewelers with the stone. The existence of jade tools and weapons at Stone Age locations indicates the existence of the stone long before written documentation.

Due to its extreme hardness, Jadeite is a dense mineral, which makes it extremely difficult to shatter. Stated per carat, the most expensive mineral in the world is Jadeite, which is $3 million.

#2. Blue Diamond – $3.72 Million Per Carat.

Blue diamonds hold the title of the most expensive gemstone in the world since they are extraordinarily rare and paired with remarkable brilliance.

Undoubtedly, they are the most favored gemstones. The Oppenheimer Blue Diamond, weighing 14.62 carats, is the most expensive diamond of vivid blue hue. It was sold for a staggering $57.5 million or $3.72 million per carat.

Extreme pressure and heat conditions lead to the formation of natural blue diamonds when carbon atoms bond together.

Under these conditions, the combination of heat and pressure causes carbon atoms to bond and create crystal structures known as blue diamonds.

Boron impurities give blue diamonds their hue. Increasing the intensity of boron content deepens the color of the diamond.

Synthetic blue diamonds are engineered in a laboratory and, unlike natural diamonds, these diamonds fabricated from natural diamonds share the same composition, structure, and optical properties.

In the absence of a thorough examination, natural blue diamonds and lab-grown ones are indistinguishable. Natural blue diamonds are more valuable than enhanced blue diamonds.

#3. Red Diamonds – $2 million per carat.

A red diamond is a type of diamond that possesses a red hue while still maintaining the same properties as a colorless diamond.

Most people know of red diamonds as the most expensive mineral and the rarest diamond color in the world. This is because, unlike pink or blue diamonds, very few red diamonds have been found.

Just like pink diamonds, red diamonds are also hotly contested about the source of their color. However, the gemological community most commonly credits both colors to gliding atoms in the diamond’s structure due to immense pressure during its formation.

Red diamonds are also among the 12 colors of fancy color diamonds and hold the record for the most expensive price per carat.

The mine offers them for auction every few years for high prices ranging from $2 to $2.5 million per carat.

Red diamonds are a purplish red in color, so they would not easily be mistaken for rubies or garnets.

#4. Serendibite – $1.8 Million Per Carat.

Serendibite is an exceedingly rare silicate mineral found in 1902 by Sri Lankan Dunil Palitha Gunasekera. The name comes from Serendib which is the old Arabic name for Sri Lanka. As compared to the rest of the list, Serendibite is a mineral that isn’t very common.

Ratnapura in Sri Lanka and Mogok in Northern Burma are two locations with deposits of serendibite. Serendibite crystal formation follows an intricate sequence of some processes that make use of variety of different molecules.

Aluminum, calcium, boron, magnesium, silicon, and oxygen come together from scattered locations to form a compound.

The known three surviving faceted units of serendibite are of 0.35 carats, 0.55 carats, and 0.56 carats, which is all there is in today’s world.

The fact that there are only three in existence, makes it unsurprising that they are priced at $1.8 to $2 million per carat.

#5. Blue Garnet – $1.5 Million Per Carat.

Color-change garnets do feature blue hues, but blue garnets are usually assumed to be an absent characteristic. blue garnets were thought to be an absent feature until now.

Instead of the deep rich dark blue of a sapphire, the color shifts between a pale metallic blue and greenish-blue gray. Not a gem that will likely stand out at a social gathering.

While blue garnets are one of the most expensive stones on the market, they are still available for $1.5 million per carat. Current market prices for high−quality garnets with a profound color change from blue to red or purple is set at $1,500 per carat.

The development of blue garnets occurs through streams loaded with vanadium. This processes leads to purple tinged vanadium and the right balance of streams makes it a priceless stone.

#6. Painite – $50,000 to $60,000 Per Carat.

Known as the rarest mineral in the world, painite was found back in the 1950s in Myanmar (previously known as Burma), bursting with an astonishing orange red color which makes it easily recognizable and is sought after by collectors and jewel enthusiasts.

Painite consists of calcium, boron, and oxygen and is typically found in rocks that have gone through metamorphism. Other minerals that undergo the process of metamorphosis turn into painite and form small and poorly structured crystals.

Searching for painite is like looking for a needle in a stack of hay. With only a few hundred cuts available, this precious stone becomes limited edition.

This is why it is considered rare and it fetches such high prices. Some people are willing to pay around $50 to $60 thousand dollars for a carat of this precious stone!

Painite gets all spruced up in jewelry ranging from lavish to sophisticated. Not to mention that collectors and enthusiasts of gemstones are known to prize painite most because of its limited availability.

#7. Taaffeite- $35,000 per carat.

Taaffeite (BeMgAl₄O₈) is a rare mineral and it’s often misidentified with spinel. It comes from alluvial deposites in Sri lanka and Tanzania. With high grade material averaging at € 30,249, it’s priced at $35,000 per carat.

Taaffeite is a sometimes colorless, light mauve stone, ranging in color from green, pink, lilac, blue, violet, red to colorless.

This stone is also known by its trade name Magnesiotaaffeite and has some distinct features that resemble other stones.

Unlike spinel, which is only singly refractive, Taaffeite is doubly refractive. Taaffeite’s main components are beryllium, magnesium and aluminium, making it a transparent gem with a vitreous luster. Due to Taaffeite being extremely rare, it’s exclusively used for gem stones.

#8. Grandidierite- $20,000 per carat.

Grandidierite is a gem with a stunning value, which was first discovered in Madagascar in 1902. Grandidierite ((Mg, Fe2+) Al₃(BO₃) (SiO₄) O₂), having a value of up to $20,000 per carat, is one of the rarest gemstones in the world.

High-grade pieces are often found as secondary accessories on boron- and aluminum- rich rocks with a bluish-green semi-translucent pearl like luster. In terms of price, € 17,295 ($20,000) per carat is the average per carat cost.

Grandidierites are also known to exhibit strong trichroic pleochroism. In layman’s terms, this means that depending on the angle of observation, it can display dark blue-green, colorless (sometimes a light yellow), or dark green.

While this feature can greatly help in identifying grandidierites, other gems such as lazulite can occur in blue-green shades and show colorless, blue, or dark blue pleochroism.

Lazulite, on the other hand, does have somewhat higher indices of refraction as well as specific gravity. In terms of hardness, grandidierites outperform at 7.5 on the Mohs scale.

#9. Alexandrite- $12,000 per carat.

Another very rare type of chrysoberyl is known as Alexandrite (BeAl₂O₄) was discovered with the rest of the stones in the Ural Mountains. Alexandrite differs from chrysoberyl with the presence of iron, titanium, and chromium as impurities.

Brazil, Asia, and Sri Lanka have all mined smaller alexandrite types, but they are still incredibly difficult and costly to acquire. Average price per carat: € 10,379 ($12,000) per carat.

Known for being one of the color-changing gemstones available, alexandrite is transformed to red when looking at it under incandescent light, while sunlight turns it green.

#10. Gold – $1,790 Per Ounce.

Globally, gold is recognized as one of the most prized soft metals. Its appeal is greatly attributed to its yellow color. Gold does not rust or oxidize, allowing for durable and aesthetically pleasing coins and jewelry.

Gold can also be used in electronics, dentistry, and medicine as a result of its efficient electrical conduction.

Rivers, streams, and gold mines scatter the world with hidden treasures containing small amounts of gold. The purity of gold determines its value, which is measured in karats.

You want to know how valuable gold is? Pure gold is priced at 24 karats, which is the highest you can go without losing value. And even then, you want to be aware of what is going on in the economy and what the political landscape looks like. That is so because gold is viewed as a hedge against inflation and economic downturns.

Currently, the price is hovering around $3,237.54 per Troy ounce, which is exorbitantly high. It goes to show that gold is among the most valuable substances on earth.

#11. Platinum – $1050 Per Ounce.

Announced a few years ago, platinum is regarded as a highly valuable scarce commodity. loved by consumers, because of its amazing, hard yet pliable properties.

Platinum doesn’t limit itself to jewelries alone, it’s used in high end gadgets, automotive industry, health care and tons of other fields.

scientifically classified as a soft dense metal, platinum doesn’t rust easily and withstands extreme temperatures, shiny with silvery-white luster, platinum catches the attention of most people.

Unlike silver or gold, platinum is rarely found on itself in earth’s crust as it’s tagged along with other expensive minerals like palladium, gold etc.

Mining hotspots of platinum are clustered in South Africa, Russia and Canada, the process to which they derive these metals involves platinum smelting techniques.

Now, in the supply and demand paradigm of the world, platinum’s price oscillates regularly. Economic factors such as state of economy and political factors such as civil unrest have an impact on the pricing as well.

For example, on June 06, 2023, the price per ounce of platinum was approximately $1050 and Now, On April 11, 2025, closing around $948.31 per ounce.

This coupled with other precious metals to form a group of minerals makes platinum one of the most precious minerals in the globe.

#12. Rubies – $435 Per Gram.

Ruby is described as a gemstone with red to pinkish red hue. It’s actually a type of corundum (aluminum oxide). Apart from being extremely durable, ruby is also quite popular in traditional jewelry.

Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires. Ruby is one of the traditional cardinal gems, alongside amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond.

Blood or pigeon blood is the most prized and valuable hue of rubies and there is a mammoth bounty paid for rubies of strikingly similar quality and most valuable shade of red called blood-red or pigeon blood.

After color comes clarity: just like diamonds, a clear stone will attract a premium, but a ruby free of rutile needle inclusions is suggestive of treatment on the stone.

Ruby is the associated birthstone of July and is customarily pinker than garnet, although a few rhodolite garnets exhibit a pinkish tinge that is akin to most rubies. The most valuable ruby in the world auctioned to date is the Sunrise Ruby.

The market value of a flawless high quality ruby is around one million dollars per carat but finer examples are more expensive when in unadorned gold or platinum jewelry. A large Burmese ruby recently sold for a whopping $30 million dollars, which sets the record.

#13. Diamond – $1,800 Per Carat.

Diamonds are super precious and are made out of pure carbon. Now that is some bling! The value people place on diamonds stems from their stunning aesthetics, rarity, and versatility in jewelry design.

Want to know a cool fact. Diamonds are created deep in the Earth’s mantle, only to be brought to the surface during volcanic eruptions. How crazy is that?

Diamonds are special because they are the VIPs of gemstones. Most people have heard of diamonds placed in extravagant engagement rings however, they are also used in many different products.

Not only that! Due to their extreme hardness and toughness, they become useful in drilling and cutting industries

When it comes to evaluating diamond value, it all boils down to the four “C’s.” The first being the most obvious – cut. The cut refers to how the diamond is shaped and how much polish it has.

The value of a diamond is evident in how well-cut it is, and in the reflection of light that it emits. The third “C” in the four “C” is color. The value of a diamond increases as it loses color.

The first thing that comes to mind is clarity, which refers to how clear the diamond is. The clearer the diamond, the better! In addition, carat weight, which refers to the size of the diamond. The larger the diamond, the higher the price.

What is the cost of the diamond? The price can reach a stunning $1,800 per carat! Please remember that the value of a diamond depends on its quality and size. If you’re fortunate enough to find diamonds, it’s definitely a diamond of a time.

#14. Rhodium – $401 Per Gram.

Rhodium is believed to be one of the rarest elements found under the Earth’s surface. Its Commercial value is determined only why its reserves.

You may think of rhodium as an element used exclusively for extravagant jewelry such as white gold or platinum, but believe it or not, its commercial value is the sole reason why rhodium is considered extremely valuable.

One major application in which it is utilized is in the automobile industry. They employ it in something called catalytic converters which are like fantastical goblins that change very harmful gases into somewhat dangerous ones.

In fact, back in 2012, out of all the rhodium used in the world, a whopping 81% of it went straight into making those converters for cars. The rest of it found its way into things like glassmaking and chemicals.

Now, on its own, rhodium might not seem all that impressive. Somehow, it has a silvery-white tint not too eye-catching. But believe me, it’s very high in demand, and that’s what propels it to become one of the most sought after minerals around.

#15. Red Beryl- $10,000 per carat.

A mineral composed of Red Beryl (Be₃Al₂Si₆O₁₈) is beryllium, aluminum and silicate. In nature, pure beryl is colorless but due to traces of additional elements, it can change its coloring.

Most cut red beryl stones weigh less than 1 carat. Average price per carat: $10,000 per carat for high-quality material.

Red Beryl is mined in rhyolite tuffs. It is said to be an incredibly rare type of beryl discovered only in the two states of Utah and New Mexico.

The year 1904 marked the discovery of red beryl by Maynard Bixby. Gem-quality red beryl has only been mined in Utah, although it has been found in two locations.

Due to unique and specific conditions required to form this stone, red emerald, as it is sometimes called, is extremely rare to find.

Note that this stone can be faked. Red beryls can be inclusively flawed, much like emeralds, but their inclusions do not always detract from the overall value of the gemstone.

If a red beryl stone has high clarity, a large carat weight, and is red in color, then there’s a high chance that the stone is synthetic.

Red beryl specimens are so scarce that they remain uncut and are sold to collectors as specimens.

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