Diamond Hunter Claims 6.03-ct Yellow "Could be Worth $1m"
October 06, 26
(IDEX Online) - An amateur diamond hunter who unearthed a 6.03-carat yellow gem at a state park in Arkansas, USA, claims collectors have told him it could be worth $1 million.
Jack Pearadin, a US Navy reservist, discovered the stone while sifting gravel from the Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, where visitors pay $15 a day on a finders-keepers basis.
Pearadin began searching at the park in 2013 and has, so far, found more than 300 diamonds. He moved to nearby Murfreesboro to be closer to the site.
He was processing a bucket of gravel when he saw the stone during a livestream on TikTok back in January.
The stone, named the American Dream Diamond, has attracted headlines again after the Associated Press (AP) reported Pearadin's claim that he'd been told the stone could be worth $1 million.
AP says certified gem appraiser Laura Stanley, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, gave a far lower estimate, based on reported size and quality rather than inspection, of about $250,000.
Park officials have described it as a 48-sided hexoctahedron, a relatively uncommon crystal form compared with the 12- and 24-faced diamonds more typically recovered at the site.
The Crater of Diamonds is one of the world's few places where members of the public can search for natural diamonds in their original volcanic source and keep what they find. The 37-acre search field is the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic crater.
More than 37,000 diamonds have been registered by visitors since the site became a state park in 1972.
The most famous is the 40.23-carat "Uncle Sam," found in 1924 by a worker at the Arkansas Diamond Company during the site's commercial mining era. It remains the largest diamond ever found in the United States
Other notable finds include the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight, the 8.52-carat Esperanza and a 7.64-carat brown diamond found by a French tourist in 2023.
Pearadin discovered the stone while searching with fellow gem hunter Michael Schumacher. He says he plans to share any proceeds with him.
Pics, courtesy