Red diamonds are the fifth most expensive material in the world: they cost 4.3 million euros per gram
When it comes to really precious materials, gold, platinum or silver are cheap – compared to astronomical prices that some substances reach. And the most expensive substance that exists (in fact, anti-exist) on Earth has the inconceivable cost of 54 billion euros per gram.
It was the morning of September 24, 2023 when a space capsule appeared in the skies of the Utah Test and Training Range of the US Department of Defense.
Floating to the earth, under a parachute, was a single container containing 121 grams of material From the surface of one, collected by NASA’s mission.
A little over a year after Osiris-Rex landing, we now know that Bennu’s samples contain water rich.
In January 2025, scientists confirmed that the asteroid even has a variety of richer organic matter than we have on earth and contains all the ingredients that constitute our DNA.
This indicates that asteroids like Bennu, which are traces of a very anterior time of the solar system, may have provided the earthin its early days, the essential chemical blocks for the construction of life.
However, These discoveries have a cost. Osiris-Rex samples are currently one of the most expensive substances on earthwith an extraordinary price of 8.7 million euros per gram.
This sample is not the only material currently quoted at an exorbitant price. Many others incredibly rare and expensive materials exceed The price of the asteroid sample.
It identified the Seven more expensive materials in the world – Although it is important to note that since many of the listed substances are not transacted as common goods, price estimates may vary greatly.
Thus, season all the values below with a chip of salt – about 0.001 euros per gram…
7. Helium-3: 8,800 euros /grass
Helium-3 is a Hélio light isotopewhich means that it lacks the second neutrão found in the common varieties of gas. It is scarce in the earth atmosphere and most come from the radioactive decay of the tritium hydrogen isotope, which is also a rare substance.
O Trítioevaluated in about 26 thousand euros per gramis used in nuclear weapons and some types of nuclear reactors. With a semi-life of just over 12 years, is constantly producing helium-3but annual world production is located only between 10 and 20 kg.
The isotope is much sought after for nuclear inspection tools due to its ability to Displayed neutrons. It can also be used in advanced cryogenic systems required for quantum computers and superconducting devices.
In the future, it could serve as a clean fuel for nuclear fusion reactors, but in this case demand would clearly surpass the current offer.
The lunar surface is thought to absorb atoms of Helium-3 throughout its existence of four billion years, so the isotope could, in theory, be extracted there and sent to Earth.
O cost of such an operationcombined with the value of the isotope in cleaning clean energy to the world, could raise the price to almost 3 million euros per gram.
6. Emeralds, Rubis and Sapphiiras: 440 thousand euros /g
Like anyone who likes to use bright things you know, these precious stones are much appreciated to use in jewelery. Its value derives from its natural rarity and its beauty After the gross stone was worked on a stunning jewelry by a specialized craftsman.
As emeralds are rarer than diamonds common, acquiring its unique color due to the chromium and vanadium elements that are inside. Rubis also acquires their deep red color due to the chromium. The sapphires are famous for being blue, but may have other colorsdepending on the present metal.
Another important factor is the cultural, historical and symbolic meaning of the precious stone. Covered by royalty as status emblems and transformed into love talismans and affection for jewelry trade, these rare natural treasures are also appreciated by investors.
In recent years, the Paiinitea recently discovered mineral, won its place in the jewelry trade. Found only in MyanmarIt is a rare borato mineral whose inclusions of chromium and vanadium give it a red color.
Not being as expensive as emeralds, rubies and sapphires, their value is around 264 thousand euros per gram.
5. Red Diamonds: 4.3 million euros /g
The value of red diamonds comes from their extreme raritywith less than 30 acquaintances around the world. They are only in some diamond mines in Australia, Brazil and South Africa, and most of them come from a particular place: the Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia.
Mining operations were in full progress in Argyle in the mid -1980s, after a single ore tube was discovered in 1979.
But in 2020, the Argyle Mine was ended by its owners – After 865 million gross diamond carats were extracted from the rocks – because it was coming to exhaustion. Red diamonds constituted only an increasing fraction of this total.
Os colorful diamonds, in general, are not rareincluding orange, blue and yellow diamonds. Often, this is due to impurities in the form of other elements – such as nitrogen, in the case of yellow diamonds, and boron, in the case of blues.
However, the mystery behind the color of red diamonds It continues to resolve, since there are no impurities in them.
Instead, scientists think that the structure of the diamond crystalline network may somehow have been distorted during their formation. If this is the case, it is the way Light interacts with the diamond that creates the color.
Most red diamonds are small, weighing less than one carat. The greatest example was not found in Australia, but in Brazil: weighs 13.9 carats (2.8g) as a gross stone, and 5.11 carats (1g) when cut into a jewel.
It is now known as the Red Diamond Moussaeffname of the jeweler who bought it around 2001 for an unveiled amount.
4. Bennu samples: 8.7 million euros /grass
The cost of the samples brought by Bennu is surprisingly calculated: dividing the cost of the mission by the amount of material returned. In the case of Osiris-Rex, the conception, launch and operation itself cost about 10 billion euros.
If everything had run as expected, the cost per grass would have been about double, because the mission was expected just captured about 60g. But with a total of 121 g of asteroid, the sample turned out to be less scarce-and therefore less valuable.
An earlier mission to return asteroid samples, the Hyabusa-2 From Japan, delivered by 2020. Based on a similar method of calculation, these samples cost about 9.7 million euros per gram.
Although it only returned a few 5g, the mission was cheaper than the Osiris-Rex-making Ryugu’s cosmic content less desirable.
3. Californio-252: 23 million euros /grass
Californio-232 (CF-232) is a radioactive isotope that is not found in nature and can only be produced in reactors nuclear or particle accelerators. As its name suggests, it was first produced at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in 1950.
The value of Californio-252 comes from the fact that it is a colossal source of neutrons. A single microgram of the isotope can produce about 139 million neutrons per minute.
This makes it highly lethal, but crucial for certain applications. One of them is in nuclear reactors, where the isotope is used to react in chain that produce energy.
Another of its critical uses is in medicinespecifically as part of cancer treatments. The fact that CF-232 neutrons are lethal for living cells means that they can be highly effective in well-directed radiation therapies against carcinogenic cells. This is why, despite its high cost, the CF-252 is commercially available.
2. Endohydric fulerenos based on nitrogen atoms: 122 million euros /grass
Os metamaters They are artificial substances with properties that are rare or are not in all in nature. An example is the Carbon nanotubes – Tiny cylindrical structures that may have only a few nanometers (one billionesimo meter) wide.
However, despite their complexity, they are currently widely used in the electronics and the creation of strong and light materialsespecially in aerospace engineering.
In relative terms, they are very cheap, costing about 440 euros per grambut in the forefront of discipline things are very different.
In 2016, scientists at Designer Carbon Materials, a company with connections to Oxford University, based on nitrogen atoms, called fulento endoédricowhich was recently sold by the equivalent of 122 million euros per gram.
A fulereno is a molecule that contains 60 carbon atoms arranged in a closed structure that resembles a soccer ball panel Pentagonal and hexagonal.
This resemblance led this fulereno nicknamed “” after its first generation in a laboratory in the 1980s.
Indeed, carbon atoms form a structure similar to a cage that the carbon materials designer thought intelligently to hold a nitrogen atom inside.
Nitrogen is special because the magnetic field generated by the nucleus of the atom interacts with the generated by its electrons. This causes electrons to transit between energy levels, producing the equivalent of an “tic” on a clock.
Thus, in principle, the endo -ado -based fulereno based on nitrogen atoms could be Used to create tiny atomic watches – which, among other things, are the very basis of satellite navigation.
Currently, the atomic watches of navigation satellites are the size of shoe boxes. But the use of this specific fulene could make them fit inside a mobile phone.
1. Antimatter: 54 billion euros /grass
Well known to science fiction fans such as source of energy that keeps the star USS Enterprise, from Star Trek, to navigate the speed WARP, the antimatter was Theorized by the English mathematician Paul Dirac in 1928 and actually discovered by Carl Anderson in 1932.
When the matter come into contact, mutually annihilate and become pure energy. In fact, this process is the most efficient way to release energy in the universe.
Use antimatter as a fuel source I would revolutionize everything. It would solve energy needs on Earth and provide so much energy that it could make interstellar travel viable, boosting spaceships at an unprecedented speed (even if Warp Drive remains a product of imagination).
The reason for its astronomical cost derives from the way it is manufactured. Currently, antimatter has to be artificially manufactured in particle accelerators such as CERN (LHC), located underground along the Franco-Swiss border.
A antimatter produced by the LHC is a byproduct of their experiences that exploit the nature of matter. In other words, scientists are not cultivating it as such.
To collect it, it would be necessary to use complex magnetic “bottles”, also known as penning traps, which prevent antimatter from taping the container walls and causing an explosion.
Even if this was possible, the cost of antimatter production It is truly astronomical. LHC cost about 5 billion euros Just to be built, and its operation is around 890 thousand euros a year. Every year, produces less than an antimatter nanogram.
Thus, unless there is a miraculous technological advance, antimatter will remain a tempting but dodge substance.
