Aussie prospector finds gigantic sapphire on evening walk in QLD

A Queensland amateur* prospector* has claimed his biggest find yet after excavating* a precious gemstone during his evening walk.

Matt Betteridge found “an absolutely massive” 834-carat* Australian sapphire* near his home on fossicking* land near Queensland’s central highland Sapphire Gemfields. He spotted the stone while on a “bit of evening ‘specking*’,” otherwise known as looking for sapphires with a torch.

Mr Betteridge told the Today show on Monday morning that his family was “stoked*” with his find.

“When I got back to camp we put it on the scales and my wife and I yelled, ‘800 carat!’” he said. “We couldn‘t even comprehend the size of it.”

Mr Betteridge shared the moment in a TikTok video, scraping back dirt and trying to pull the gemstone out, only to realise it was too big and required more excavation.

“Holy dooley … No way!” he exclaimed in the video.

He said the result of the excavation was “an absolutely massive” 834-carat Australian sapphire.

“Look at the size of the crystal there,” he said in the clip, the excitement clear in his voice.

Mr Betteridge claimed the sapphire was “very roughly” worth about $12,500, telling followers on TikTok he was ”beyond stoked”.

“So chuffed I can’t even explain,” he wrote.

“The rain unearthed it that little bit … I thought it was going to be an average-sized stone until I couldn’t pull it out,” he said.

Asked if the sapphire would be made into jewellery, he said, “This one will stay as a specimen*”.

“It does have some facet-grade* material inside here and you would have to destroy the specimen to find out how much it’s worth and that’s not for me. I think I will keep it as it is.”

With so much rain recently, gem hunters like Mr Betteridge are out in force, believing they have a better chance of spotting the lucrative* gemstones after heavy rain has washed away topsoil*.

“All the ‘speckers’ are out covering ground, even in between the showers,” Mr Betteridge said.

“We are all for getting people out here to have a go. Just grab your permit in town here and have a go.”

The region is believed to be one of the largest sapphire-bearing areas in the world.

GLOSSARY

• amateur: person who engages in a pursuit or sport as a hobby rather than as a job
• prospector: person or company that looks for gold, oil and other valuable substances on or under the surface of Earth
• excavating: digging holes in the ground in search of or to recover something
• carat: unit for measuring the weight of diamonds and other precious stones
• sapphire: a precious stone popular in jewellery, usually bright blue but colour varies
• fossicking: searching for something among other things
• specking: slang abbreviation derived from “prospecting”
• stoked: being in a state of great excitement and happiness
• specimen: something shown, examined or used as a typical example of something
• facet-grade: measure of quality, including features like colour, clarity, shape and size
• lucrative: producing a lot of money, making a large profit
• topsoil: surface soil, layer of soil nearest to the top ground cover

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QUICK QUIZ

1. Where in QLD was the gemstone discovery made?
2. How many carats is the sapphire?
3. On which social media platform did Mr Betteridge share his find?
4. What is the estimated value of the gem?
5. What are Mr Betteridge’s plans for the stone?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What would make you say it?
“Holy dooley, no way!” Describe something that might make you say this.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

2. Extension
How would you go about checking if everything Matt Betteridge is saying, or showing on TikTok, is true? List all of the steps you would take.

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Science

VCOP ACTIVITY
Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word. They are often found describing a noun. To start with look at the words before the nouns.

Search for all the adjectives you can find in the article.

Did you find any repeat adjectives or are they all different?

Extension
Pick three of your favourite adjectives from the text and put them in your own sentences to show other ways to use them.

Have you used any in your writing?