The Kimberly Process is a set of standards that a diamond-producing country must meet to assure that the stones are produced legally and without human exploitation. Zimbabwe could be told to stop exporting diamonds until it complies with the KP standards.
One of the largest diamonds in history was discovered at the Cullinan Diamond Mine in South Africa. The 507-carat white stone is one of many spectacular gems from the Cullinan Mine.
The Wyoming Geological Survey has a .pdf booklet titled: “Searching for Placer Diamonds” that you can download and read for free.
It was written by W. Dan Hausel and contains information about recognizing diamonds, prospecting for diamonds, references and a map of the Colorado-Wyoming Kimberlite Province.
CNN has an article about how six people found a fortune. One of the stories is about a person finding a 40.23 carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas – the only diamond mine in the world where you can look for diamonds and keep what you find.
Diamonds have lifted the economy of Botswana but the recent recession has cut demand by about 50%. Their response is an attempt to capture the diamond sorting, cutting and selling portions of the trade.
Lonsdaleite diamonds found on California’s Channel Islands are suggestive of a cosmic impact some 12,900 years ago. This impact is one of several theories on how some species became extinct at the end of the ice age.
Diamonds are composed of carbon and many people wonder if diamonds can be burned. Here is a video from The Open University. It shows a diamond being heated with a torch then dropped into liquid oxygen where it burns to produce carbon dioxide gas.
The only producing diamond mine in the United States is the Crater of Diamonds Mine near Murfreesboro, Arkansas. It is also the only diamond mine in the world where you can be the miner.
Diamonds sometimes acquire trapped traces of platinum group elements such as platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium when they are formed. “When these elements are encapsulated as mineral inclusions in diamonds, their unique isotopic ’signatures’ help geologists determine where the diamonds were formed and how old they are.” Quoted from the NSF release.
What would happen if large, nearly flawless diamonds could be grown at a rate of a millimeter per hour? That day might arrive soon. Diamonds then would have much wider use in industry – but what might happen to the gemstone market?
Earth Observatory published a satellite image of the Jwaneng Diamond Mine, located in south-central Botswana. It shows the deep concentric geometry of the mine, adjacent settling ponds and a nearby community where many of the miners live.
Leadership positions in the gem-quality diamond production race are constantly changing as new discoveries are made and old mines are worked out. This article charts diamond production geographically and over time.
A blue diamond of 7.03 carats was sold for $9.5 million – the highest per carat price ever paid for a gemstone at auction. The stone was produced from the Cullinan mine in South Africa.
A seven-carat blue diamond mined from South Africa will soon be up for auction in Geneva, and is expected to sell at a record price. Its unusual color is caused by the element boron.
One of just three in the world, this red diamond was a big hit with kids visiting the Hixon Gem Vault in Los Angeles. Stolen during World War II it is now on public display.
If you are looking for spring field trip ideas you might consider visiting Herkimer, New York to look for some of the doubly terminated quartz crystals known as “Herkimer Diamonds”.
Here is an interesting article in Smithsonian Magazine that blends a lot of history from the only working diamond mine in the United States, the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, with a recent mystery of suspicious diamond discoveries. Stones from the Crater of Diamonds are worth ten times the price of stones of equivalent size and quality in the market – because many people want to patronize the Arkansas locality. Here is an earlier report on this story at FakeMinerals.com.
Prices paid for gem quality diamond rough have dropped by about 30% in the past year. Now Canadian diamond mines such as De Beers’ Snap Lake, BHP Billiton’s Ekati and Rio Tinto’s Diavik are cutting jobs, production and/or investment.
University of Oregon scientists believe that nanodiamonds may reveal key information about how the woolly mammoth became extinct and why the Clovis Culture was fragmented about 12900 years ago.
As a result of the global economic downturn the demand for cut diamonds is forcing the layoff of thousands of employees in Surat, India, where a large percentage of the world’s rough diamonds are cut into gems.
Natural Resources Canada has a section on their website featuring the diamond deposits of Canada. They explain indicator minerals, drift prospecting and give profiles of several deposits including: Central Slave, NWT; Drybones Bay, NWT; Prairie Region; Lake Timiskaming, Flin Flon and Kirkland Lakes. You can also order their open file report: “Searching for Diamonds in Canada”.
Over the past few years Canada has moved to a prominent place in the production of gem quality diamonds. Now Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. may have found another nice deposit. They recovered 3.25 carats from a 2.28 tonne sample collected from a kimberlite on Baffin Island and have spotted over 170 kimberlite-type anomalies on adjacent lands.
A team of researchers has improved the way that artificial diamonds are created. They can now make large gems that are virtually indistinguishable from natural stones. Some are concerned that this will have a negative impact on the natural diamond market.
High indicator mineral counts in the glacial tills of Nunavut near the PST Kimberlite has Stornoway Diamond Corporation and Shear Minerals Limited optimistic that they might find additional diamond-bearing kimberlite bodies.
De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited announced the opening of the Voorspoed Diamond Mine in South Africa. It is the first new major diamond mine to open in South Africa in twenty years. Expected yield is about 10 million carats over the lifetime of the mine.
Near-perfect synthetic diamonds are being grown in laboratories by a process that does not require enormous pressure. The method known as “chemical vapor deposition” can be used to grow diamond crystals at temperatures below that of Earth’s atmosphere.
A new cancer treatment uses nanodiaminds (diamond dust) to carry chemotherapy medications. The nanodiamonds are placed on a patch and the patch placed over the area where treatment is to occur. The chemotherapy medication is released over time.
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Hobart King
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