Top 20 Most Expensive Minerals in the World, Ranked

The Most Valuable Mineral in the World: Direct Answer

Diamond is the most expensive mineral in the world by price per carat. The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star sold for a world-record price per carat at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2022: about US$57.7 million with fees, or about US$5.2 million a carat. The previous record holder, the 12.03-carat Blue Moon of Josephine, made US$48.4 million in November 2015, about US$4.0 million a carat. Ruby comes second on auction evidence. A carat is 0.2 grams, so a one-carat stone weighs one-fifth of a gram.

“Most valuable” can also mean total market value, and there the answer changes. Gold was US$4,123.80 per troy ounce on 5 November 2026 (Kitco), only about US$26.52 a carat, yet it trades as a global financial asset in a way no gem does. So this page gives two answers: the price ranking in one table, and the market reasons behind it. All prices are in US dollars.

Top 20 Most Expensive Minerals in the World, Ranked

The table ranks 20 minerals and gem varieties by the highest per-carat figure we could trace to a public source. Read the “Basis” column before comparing rows, because it tells you what kind of number you are looking at. An auction record is one exceptional stone. A dealer figure is an asking or guide price. A metal figure is a dated spot quote converted to carats.

Chart

Top per-carat figures for gems below the two auction leaders

US$ per carat, selected rows from our ranking; diamond and ruby are off this scale

How we chose and ranked them

We included natural minerals, named gem varieties and native-metal commodities that have a traceable price. We ranked each by its highest published per-carat figure, not by a typical stone. Ruby and sapphire are both the mineral corundum, and emerald and red beryl are both beryl; we list them apart because the market prices them apart. Rare gems with no public price we could trace, such as serendibite and poudretteite, are left out, so treat the order as a guide to documented prices and not as a final league table.

The biggest caution is that the top two rows are auction records and most of the rows below them are not. A dealer page is an asking price from a seller, and a very small stone can produce a very high rate: grandidierite’s figure comes from a single 0.29-carat stone. Treat a gap of a few places in the middle of the table as noise.

Most Expensive Minerals by Record Price Per Carat

If the question is which mineral has sold for the most money per carat, the answer is diamond. The Williamson Pink Star holds the per-carat record at about US$5.2 million with fees (2022), ahead of the Blue Moon of Josephine at about US$4.0 million (2015). The largest total price in this group is higher still: the 59.60-carat Pink Star sold for US$71.2 million in Hong Kong in April 2017, which works out to about US$1.19 million a carat.

Ruby shows why the per-carat and total-price records differ. The 25.59-carat Sunrise Ruby made US$30.42 million in May 2015, about US$1.19 million a carat. The 55.22-carat Estrela de Fura sold for US$34.8 million at Sotheby’s New York in June 2023, a higher total but only about US$630,000 a carat. Resale can also move a long way from the record: the Sunrise Ruby returned to auction at Christie’s in May 2023 and sold for US$14.7 million.

Auction records describe single exceptional stones. They are not market prices, and an ordinary stone of the same mineral can sell for a tiny fraction of the headline. The same point applies to the rarest minerals. Painite is far rarer than diamond, but its stones are small and dark, so it sits well below the record gems. Our painite price guide sets out the real sale results, and our guide to the rarest mineral explains why the rarest species are often not the most expensive.

Comparison Table: Price Per Carat, Ranked

This table puts the three kinds of price on one scale for the most searched names. One troy ounce is 31.1035 grams, or 155.52 carats, so you divide a per-ounce quote by 155.52 to get a per-carat figure.

The diamond row is the clearest lesson. USGS data put the US import unit value of industrial diamond stones, which are primarily natural, at US$6.70 a carat in its 2025 estimate, about the same as palladium on the per-carat scale, while the auction record is about 770,000 times that figure. “Diamond” is both the most expensive mineral and, in its industrial grades, a low-priced tool material.

Gemstones: Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald

These four are the traditional “Big Four” gems. The International Gem Society gives the top figures for the coloured three in its guides: over US$200,000 a carat for the rarest blue sapphire, against US$2,000 to US$10,000 for other unheated pure blues, and US$100,000 a carat or more for the best Colombian emerald.

Four things drive the spread inside each gem. Colour counts most in the coloured stones. Origin matters too, because a documented classic source can add a large premium. Treatment matters, since unheated stones sell above heated ones. And size pushes the rate up quickly: IGS notes that a recent guide valued one fine 3-carat Colombian emerald at six times the price of three equal 1-carat stones.

Diamond has a further feature: industrial use. Its hardness of 10 on the Mohs scale, the top of that scale, is why it is used in cutting, grinding and drilling tools. USGS also tracks bort, grit, dust and powder, natural and synthetic, whose US import value it put at US$0.21 a carat in its 2025 estimate.

Voorspoed Mine: The Old Building on the Farm

Some readers reach this topic through a real place: the Voorspoed diamond mine, about 30 km north-east of Kroonstad in South Africa. The mine was first worked from 1906 to 1912, producing about 950,000 carats from around 2 million tons of ore. It reopened under De Beers as a modern operation in November 2008, and operations ceased in 2018.

If you are researching an old building or structure on the property for family, heritage or land-title reasons, the mine history gives you only the two production periods. It does not date individual structures, so check the local heritage and land records for that. For other old diamond districts, see our profile of the Mir diamond mine.

Precious Metals: Gold, Platinum, Palladium

Metals are quoted per troy ounce, and converting them shows how far they sit below gems on a per-carat basis. On 5 November 2026 Kitco showed gold at US$4,123.80, platinum at US$1,526, palladium at US$1,030 and rhodium at US$8,650. Kitco notes that rhodium trades dealer to dealer rather than on an exchange and that its quote is a bid price.

Chart

Four precious metals converted to price per carat

US$ per carat, spot quote divided by 155.52, 5 November 2026

Rhodium is the most expensive of these four per ounce, at about 2.1 times gold on those quotes. Our guide to the rarest metals explains how rarity and price differ for these and other elements.

So why does gold keep coming up as the most valuable mineral? The per-carat figure is the wrong test for it. A gem sale is usually a one-off deal between a buyer and a seller over a stone with no exact twin. Gold is interchangeable, it is quoted around the clock, and an ounce can be bought or sold at a visible price. That depth is what an investor means by value, and it is something no gem on this list offers. Spot prices move during the day, so check a live chart before relying on the figures above.

▶ How gold is mined and refined, from rock to ring (5:27). · 5:27

Rare Earths: Terbium and Dysprosium, and Why the Price Gap Matters

Searches for the most expensive natural resources often lead to rare earths. They rank low per carat, but they have the most unusual pricing on this page, because the same oxide can have two very different prices. Rare Earth Exchanges’ October 2026 table lists terbium oxide at US$896 to US$904 per kg in China and US$10,000 to US$13,000 per kg outside China. It lists dysprosium oxide at US$196 to US$201 per kg in China and US$2,500 to US$5,500 per kg outside China.

Chart

Terbium and dysprosium oxide average prices

US$ per kg, 2025 is an estimate

Chart

Rare earth oxide prices: China and outside China

US$ per kg, midpoint of each quoted range, October 2026

Even the higher terbium quote is only about US$2.60 a carat, so these oxides are outside the top 20. The two sides are also not an exact match: the table’s publisher notes that the two markets use different delivery terms. Still, the gap matters to anyone assessing a supply contract or a project outside China, because a project’s revenue depends heavily on which price applies.

The longer series is calmer. USGS reports average prices for terbium oxide of US$2,050 per kg in 2022 and US$1,010 per kg in its 2025 estimate, and for dysprosium oxide of US$382 and US$239 per kg in the same two years. USGS also records that China tightened export controls on terbium, dysprosium and other rare earths in April 2025.

Tantalum, Uranium, Cobalt, Silver, Lithium: Why There Is No Carat Price

These five are often named in lists of valuable minerals, but none of them is sold by the carat, so they are left out of the ranking. Each has its own market unit:

• Tantalum: usually priced by the content of tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) in concentrate, by the pound or kilogram.
• Uranium: priced per pound of uranium oxide (U3O8), with separate spot and long-term contract prices.
• Cobalt: priced per tonne or per pound of metal.
• Silver: quoted per troy ounce, like gold.
• Lithium: priced per tonne of lithium carbonate or hydroxide.

A carat price for any of them would be a conversion and nothing more, because none of them is cut and sold as a stone in normal trade. For these materials, compare the quoted price in the market’s own unit with the grade and processing cost of the ore.

Calculator: What’s Your Carat Worth?

Enter a weight and the price you were quoted. The calculator gives the stone’s value and converts the rate to per gram and per ounce, so you can compare it with a metal quote. It also shows what a dealer margin does to the figure. The result is simple arithmetic, not an appraisal: an independent lab report and the stone’s size, colour and treatment decide what a buyer will actually pay.

What to Check Before Trusting a Price Per Carat

1. Who set the number? A hammer price, a dealer’s asking price and a guide average are different things. Ask which one you are reading.
2. Was a premium included? Auction totals usually include fees, as Blue Moon’s did: 43.2 million Swiss francs plus fees.
3. What size was the stone? A rate from a 0.29-carat stone or from a 16-carat stone cannot be applied to a different size.
4. Is there a lab report? Treatment and origin can change the price many times over, and GIA’s guide to gem treatments explains the common methods.
5. Could you sell it again? The Sunrise Ruby’s 2023 result, less than half of its 2015 price, shows that resale is not assured even at the very top.

Farmonaut & Satellite Mineral Intelligence

For licence owners and investors, the useful question is often not which mineral is priciest but what a given piece of ground might hold. Farmonaut’s satellite-based mineral detection maps exploration targets from a licence boundary before fieldwork is funded. Those targets sit ahead of a resource estimate and need ground checks and drilling. You can request a quote or contact the team.

▶ Mineral exploration from space, and why drilling location matters (4:26). · 4:26

Frequently asked questions

What is the most expensive mineral in the world?

Diamond, by price per carat. The Williamson Pink Star sold for about US$5.2 million a carat with fees in 2022, a world record for price per carat at auction.

What is the most valuable mineral in the world?

It depends on the measure. Diamond leads on record price per carat. Gold is the usual answer for market value and ease of sale, because it trades at a visible price all over the world.

What are the top 5 most expensive minerals in the world?

On our ranking: diamond, ruby, sapphire, grandidierite and emerald. The first two rest on auction records, the others on trade guides or a single sale.

What is the most expensive ore in the world?

Ores do not have a single public price list, because their value depends on grade and metal content. Among the metals in our table, rhodium has the highest quote, at US$8,650 per troy ounce on 5 November 2026 (Kitco).

What are the most expensive natural resources in the world?

By unit price, gem-quality diamond and coloured gems lead, followed by precious metals such as rhodium and gold. Terbium oxide sits well below them, at up to US$13,000 per kg outside China in October 2026.

What is the painite price per kg?

Painite is not traded by the kilogram. At the published top figure of about US$60,000 a carat, the arithmetic gives US$300 million per kg, but no such quantity of gem painite is sold, and real sales can be far lower.

Why is gold so cheap per carat compared with gems?

One troy ounce is about 155.52 carats, so US$4,123.80 an ounce is only about US$26.52 a carat. Gold’s value comes from purity, depth of trading and scale, not from the scarcity of one stone.

What does carat mean for ore?

A gem carat is a weight of 0.2 grams. Ore grade is different: it is the amount of metal per tonne of rock, often written in grams per tonne (g/t). Diamond is the main exception, where mines report grade in carats per tonne or per hundred tonnes.

Is the most expensive mineral also the rarest?

No. Diamond is mined at scale, with USGS listing several countries producing millions of carats of gem-quality stones. Painite and kyawthuite are much rarer, but size, demand and an established market also set price.

How much cheaper are rare earths in China?

Rare Earth Exchanges listed terbium oxide at about US$900 per kg in China against US$10,000 to US$13,000 outside China in October 2026, and dysprosium oxide at about US$200 against US$2,500 to US$5,500.

Conclusion

Diamond leads on record price per carat, followed by ruby and then a group of rare gems whose figures are less certain. Gold leads on ease of trading. To compare any two figures, convert them to one unit, using 155.52 carats per troy ounce, and ask whether each is a record, an asking price or a spot quote. For a rare earth, also ask which market the price comes from.