Sotheby's - one of the largest auction houses in the world - announced on Wednesday that the largest ruby of all time, found in Mozambique, will go up for auction in New York next June for more than 30.3 million dollars.

The A55, 22-carat ruby is about to become the most valuable jewel of its kind to be auctioned.

Announcing the sale on Wednesday, Sotheby's described the jewel as "extremely rare" and "the most valuable and important ruby" ever to come on the market, possessing "extraordinary clarity" and a dark red color known as "pigeon's blood" - a hue more traditionally associated with highly sought-after Burmese rubies.

The gemstone, nicknamed "Estrela do Fura", was found less than a year ago by the Canadian company Fura Gems in one of its mines in Mozambique.

"Fura's Star" was cut from a rough stone that made headlines when it was unearthed by miners last July. Originally weighing 101 carats, almost double its current form, it was the highest quality gem ruby ever discovered.

The huge stone was cut into a smaller symmetrical shape and polished, processes that remove impurities and enhance the color and brilliance of a gemstone before it is put on the market. According to Sotheby's, a report by the Swiss Gemmological Institute said that this "resulted in vivid red hues due to multiple internal reflections".

Although record-breaking gemstone sales are dominated by diamonds - colored ones in particular - rubies are also considered among the rarest and most valuable gemstones in the world. The current auction record for a ruby was set by the "Sunrise Ruby", a 25.59-carat stone found in Myanmar, which fetched 30.3 million dollars in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2015.

The head of the jewelry auction house for the Americas, Quig Bruning, said in a statement that the ruby could help the African stones to compete with, "and even surpass" those of Myanmar (the country formerly known as Burma).

The ruby will be included in Sotheby's "Magnificent Jewels" sale, which will be headlined by a 10.57-carat pink diamond, "The Eternal Pink", which is expected to fetch more than 35 million dollars. Unveiled last week, the "ultra-rare" gem was described by the auction house as possessing "unparalleled color and brilliance".

Both gems will be exhibited in several cities, including Dubai, Singapore and Geneva, before heading to New York for the June auction.

Although rubies were first discovered in Mozambique several decades ago, a significant industry only emerged after 2009, when a huge deposit of stones was found near the town of Montepuez in northern Mozambique. Mozambique is now one of the most productive ruby mining countries in the world (CNN)