We all love diamonds but ever wondered where do we get them from? Read on to know:
Geography
Barring Antarctica and Europe, diamonds are found in almost all other continents including Asia, Australia, Africa, South and North America and Russia. The largest number of diamonds comes from South Africa, Russia, Australia, Botswana, and Zaire.
At present Australia mines the most. In 1990, Canada became the third largest producer. The Democratic Republic of Congo leads the production of industrial diamonds.
History
In India diamonds were found in the fourth century and were among the first few countries to undertake their mining. Most of the mines there are exhausted now, but for the one at Panna.
South Africa was the foremost producer of gem-quality diamonds in the nineteenth century. However, since the 1980’s, Australia is the leading producer of mined diamonds.
Features
It was in the early 1970’s that Australia discovered the Argyle diamond mine and realized diamond deposits at Smoke Creek, in its northwestern part. In less than a decade of that, in 1979, the country found one of the largest diamond deposits by way of Argyle diamond pipe, which during its first year of full operation in 1986 mined 29 million carats.
Since 1994, it has been producing more than 35 million carats per annum. Fifty percent of the diamonds mined here are industrial grade diamonds, while forty-five percent are classified as gem-quality diamonds. Gradually, the production from this mine is tapering off, with only 16 million carats produced during the year 2007-2008, a drop of thirty-two percent, compared to 24 million carats of the previous year.
Considerations
The price of a diamond is decided by 4 C’s. Here’s a brief description of these C’s:
Cut: It doesn’t refer to the natural shape of the diamond, which may be of a heart, round or pillow shaped. Cut refers to the reflective characteristic of a diamond and is made by humans. A diamond sparkles and reflects light depending on the quality of its cut. Different grading of cut includes: ideal, premium, very good, good, fair and poor.
Clarity: Clear diamonds are highly valued and very expensive. usually, diamonds have some natural impurity, referred to as inclusion in the trade. The more the inclusion, the less is the clarity and hence the price.
Color: A colorless diamond is considered good as it has better reflecting capacity, allowing it to shine and sparkle. Of late, colors like brown, pink and chocolate have been getting popular.
Carat Weight: Carat is the measure of weight for diamonds, the more the carats, the heavier it becomes and fetches better price.
Posted in Diamonds