Foxfire is a freak, even in the world of rare stones.

And it is also a freakish incident that saved rare diamond from being discarded as it was found buried in a place where big gem-quality diamonds aren’t supposed to exist. However its unusual, elongated shape allowed it to slip sideways through a filtering screen where the employees of a Rio Tinto Group ore processor were about to discard it. This fluke incident saved the 187.7 carats of the diamond.

“It really is a miracle that it was found. It’s a rare find, a really rare find,’’ said Alan Davies, chief executive officer of diamonds and minerals for Rio Tinto, the operator of Canada’s Diavik mine, Foxfire’s former home.

Promoting the diamond as the largest gem-quality diamond ever found in North America, this has become the company’s marketing line as it shows Foxfire to prospective suitors on a worldwide tour.

What goes in Rio Tinto’s favor is that rare diamonds are hot, much hotter than bog-standard rough stones. While their uncommon cousins rack up records, sales of those fell 18 percent last year.

Making it the most expensive of its kind—$77,649 a carat, an 813-carat jewel named the Constellation was sold for $63 million by Lucara Diamond Corp. very recently. One that could fetch more, the Lesedi la Rona, which at 1,109 carats is the size of a tennis ball, would be offered by Sotheby’s next month.

“There’s a lot of latent demand for good quality that’s large. The larger you go, the better pricing protection you have, simply because of rarity,” said Geordie Mark, an analyst at Haywood Securities Inc. in Vancouver.

Davies said he’s banking on its back-story capturing imaginations and added that the providence is just superb, even though Foxfire may be less than a third the size of the Constellation, which like the Lesedi la Rona hails from the Lucara mine in Botswana.

Foxfire escaped being crushed 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories and was named for an aboriginal description of the Northern Lights—roughly translated to an undulating fox’s tail. With caribou and grizzly bears the nearest neighbors. The Diavik mine is remote, surrounded by rocks and too many lakes to count.

Diavik exists because molten rock called kimberlite erupted miles into the air, scattering diamonds in all directions 60 million years ago after having forced its way 100 miles up through cracks in the Earth. Volcanic pipes, which were scoured by glaciers and eventually topped with water was eventually the places where the stones were pushed back down over time. Most such gems in the Northwest Territories lurk beneath a lake and the Foxfire was also found there.

“For some reason, the quality of the stones at Diavik peaks at six carats but then thereafter actually gets worse,” said Kim Truter, CEO of De Beers Canada Corp. and a former head of Diavik.

Therefore Foxfire pulled through in August by chance as Diavik wasn’t set up to handle big stones.

Although Rio Tinto’s experts figure the offending color can be polished away Foxfire looks like a pretty piece of glass with a slight yellow tinge but not the very white hue that’s ideal for engagement rings. This could bring down its value to an extent.

Meanwhile, all the publicity surrounding the recent sale of the Constellation might be a boon. The stone was purchased by a trading company in Dubai that will probably chop it into several pieces.

“It is something extraordinarily rare that has come from North America.And it’s that particular story that makes it so interesting to the collectors,” said David Shara, CEO of Optimum Diamonds.

(Adapted from Bloomberg)

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