Six-ton Chinese 'Fluorite Pearl' Is World's Largest

The fluorite mineral the stone is fashioned from is more valuable than diamonds in China

A 6-ton night pearl worth 2.2 billion yuan (331 million US dollars) was discovered in Northern China's Inner Mongolia and made its public debut in southern China's Wenchang City, Hainan Province; it is mainly composed of a fluorite mineral and emits translucent crystal ray in the darkness; it sets the new world record for the Biggest luminous pearl.

Weighing six tons and standing 5ft tall, this luminous pearl may be hard to shift physically speaking – but even with a mammoth £88million price tag it shouldn’t be too hard to find a buyer.

The stone, formed mostly of a fluorite mineral, glows green in the dark and is prized more highly than diamonds in China.

It was unearthed in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia and took its finders three years to grind the raw gem down to its pearl shape.
It has gone on show in Hainan, southern China, to attract buyers and have measurements taken for a world record bid. It is amazing and glows a blue green in the dark,' remarked one show organiser.

'These pearls are very sought after in China, especially when they are this size.'
The luminous stones, sometimes known as a Chintamani, are a wish-fulfilling jewel within the Buddhist religion.

Fluorite is well known for the amazing colours it can give out, so much so that it has been given the nickname of 'the most colourful mineral in the world'.
Its unique properties mean that the characteristic of fluorescence, when a material emits light, is named after fluorite itself.

Scientists believe that fluorite glows in the dark because of mineral impurities in the lattice that makes up its structure, as well as exposure to radiation from the atmosphere over time. Green colours are slightly rarer than the others and may be due to the presence of rare earth ions such as manganese.

Girls pose with the biggest luminous pearl in world at a show in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China

In fluorite, the visible light emitted is most commonly blue, but it can be almost any colour imaginable -like this green pearl -  '. Fluorite is also sometimes thermoluminescent - meaning it glows when heated.

Provided by Guinness World Records.