Article content

A French mountaineer scaling Mont Blanc has stumbled across a treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires lost for decades after a plane crash.

The jewels, which have an estimated value of about £207,000, (about $344,000) lay hidden among ice crystals in a metal box that was likely to have been on board an Indian plane that crashed 47 years ago. The box contained about 100 gems, with some of their sachets bearing the stamp “Made in India.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or French mountaineer stumbles across treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires worth $344K Back to video

The climber, who is reportedly in his early twenties and wants to remain anonymous, found the box earlier this month on the Glacier de Bossons, which is part of the Mont Blanc mountain range.

Gendarmes in the nearby town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice were surprised when he handed in the gems. “This was an honest young man who very quickly realised that they belonged to someone who died on the glacier,” said Sylvain Merly, the local gendarmerie chief.

He told the newspaper Le Dauphine Liberee: “He could have kept them but he preferred to give them to the police.”