Dispelling the Myths of the Crater of Diamonds State Park

We've presented the stories of people who have found diamonds in the world-known park Crater of Diamonds (here and here). Annually a great number of tourists come to the part of try their luck in digging an everlasting stone. In 2014 the number of such adventurers was 559! And this number doesn't decrease over the years. Instead the myths about this park and diamonds are growing larger. Margi Jenks, a park interpreter, who can boast 6 years of experience of working in this park, agreed to dispel four most common wrong beliefs about the diamonds of the Crater of Diamonds State Park:

1 – Diamonds found in the park are oily. They are not, but this can be the effect of little static electric charge of diamonds (actually any diamond, not exactly one found in this field). The last makes them feel slick, which people treat as greasiness.

Why the Price for Natural Diamonds is So High?

This is the question that nearly every second customer asks when he decides to make a purchase. To make it clear it's better to know some basic factors that add to diamond's final price prior you enter a jewelry shop.

1. The amount of diamond-saturated formations under the ground is giving out. Diamonds are formed deep under the ground and are hard to be mined. Moreover, the resources of kimberlite formations containing diamonds are decreasing from year to year. There are some figures to prove that: since 2000 De Beers put up more than $7 billion in mining. With that the amount of carats has dropped from 33.6 million mined in 2007 to 22.7 million mined last year. As you see, more funds are spent for mining though less gems are found.

Huge Blue Diamond Found at Cullinan

It seems there are no other talks in the diamond sphere but for rare blue diamond that was extracted from Cullinan mine. This is not the color that stirred the noise as far as blue diamonds are found regularly, though it less amount than white or yellow. This is the size of it that caused a wow effect.

The Petra Diamond mine 'gave birth' to a 122.52 carat blue diamond that makes this finding really significant. Petra is known as the worlds source of blue diamonds. Last year they managed to sell a 25.5 carat stone for $16.9 million, so it's hard to image how much this giant will cost. The truth is that blue diamonds are and have always been incredibly rare. Many of big blue stones have an entangled story that even adds to the price. These days jewels of this color are highly sought-after and collectable so there's hardly the sale without any blue diamonds.

Dug Out a Diamond with Bare Hands

The Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, never lacks visitors. People with a never fading hope to find there the most beautiful gem there visit it on a regular basis, just like Terry Staggs, a lucky guy who found his so passionately desired gem after about 28 years of non-stopping searching.

Crater of Diamonds is the only park on the globe open to people where every visitor has a chance to find natural diamonds, literally speaking a diamond-producing park. Terry Staggs is known as a regular visitor of the park.

The Park “Seasoned” With Diamonds

Diamond is a known attraction and whatever the girl says she can't stop admiring this sparkling gem. So when there is an opportunity to go to the Crater of Diamonds State Park where diamonds can be found here and there, surely it shouldn't be missed. Neither did Andrea missed hers, as if gratified for that she found a 2.10 carat brown diamond.

The Only Effective Way to Protect the Environment

While browsing the internet you will find a great number of ways suggesting you how to save the environment. Or there are lots of BBC and National Geographic documentaries shouting about the devastating impact of mankind on wild nature. You are imposed on a variety of methods how to lessen the destructive impact on nature but it looks like treating the symptoms instead of the problem, which is actually the problem of mind.

Diamond ... Planet?

There is nothing to stop people from looking for new sources of minerals. In terms of diamonds, people managed to meticulously imitate the processes that happen under the Earth mantle and recreate diamonds in laboratory conditions. So now alongside natural diamonds there are also synthetic ones, but either demand for diamonds has increased while supply remained unchanged or there is another reason we don't know, but scientists seem to see diamonds in any thing they can, even inside the planet!

The planet 55 Cancri e is the first 'diamond' planet even discovered to orbit a sun-like planet in our Milky Way galaxy. The planet is not so far away actually, it's only 40-lightyears away from the Earth, in Cancer constellation. It's twice larger than our planet and eight times heavier. 55 Cancri e consists of a molten iron core surrounded by a layer of silicon-based minerals, next goes pure diamond layer while the surface is covered by graphite. According to calculations, at least the third part of the planet is made of diamond.

This planet is absolutely unique discovery of a rich resource of diamond and it is still awaiting for people to start exploring the nearby planets. Undoubtedly, it won't happen too soon, so now what we have is natural and synthetic diamonds here on the Earth, where diamonds still remain a great investment option.

What do you think about 'diamond planet'? Do you think people will ever explore it?

10UMX – The Most Fast-Penetrating Diamond Drill To Extract Diamonds

Diamond is the hardest stone in the world, it ranks number 10 on the Mohs scale which, in fact, is based on contrasting other minerals against diamonds to see how different/close they are. This is also the most hard-to-mine mineral: apart from that it lays deep in the Earth bowels, it is also very hard for extracting – don't forget, this is the hardest stone in the world. As you can see now that there is only one strong and powerful tool that can bring diamonds on the surface – diamond. It sound like a vicious circle but that is the thing.

This is not a novel discovery, but it was in the 20th century, so since that time diamonds are widely applied in industry for making cutting, sawing, drilling tools. So today the tools are not created but rather upgraded to make them work in better way. This is what Boart Longyear Company has recently done.

The mineral exploration drilling company has launched new diamond core bit, the 10 Ultramix (UMX). The 10UMX was specifically designed to quickly penetrate the hardest rock strata. According to Boart Longyear, this is the most efficient bit so far that can perfectly cut in whatever drilling conditions it is used. The technologies applied to produce such a driller are known as 'diamond coring' having a double meaning: aiming to drill diamond with the help of a diamond drill. Specialists at Boart Longyear used the UMX patented formula to make the drill, that is large synthetic diamonds within the matrix. They claim that alongside quick penetration the 10UMX provides longer life of a tool. Weird it may sound but it looks like they use lab-grown eco-friendly diamonds to mine natural ones. We hope that one day synthetic diamonds of gem quality will be highly appreciated by all sort of customers, thus there is no need to extract natural stones any more. But until that time comes a range of companies in Africa are now actively using the super efficient drill.

Is there Something to Reduce the Price for Diamonds? Yes, Huge deposit of Them!

Indeed, diamonds are known as very rare gems that are hard to discover and then even harder to extract as far as they are formed very deep in the ground. Diamond mining involves huge resources that determine the price since among millions of tones of rock diamonds make only a tiny part. According to the Russian authorities this problem is solved now.

Scientists from the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of Russia, particularly the Siberian branch of it, revealed the information about terrific deposits of diamond deposit in the Eastern Siberian region. It was discovered long before in the 1970th but was neatly declassified by particual reasons. As it is prognosed, these stocks will be enough for more than 3000 years, so this fact should dramatically change the situation in the diamond market and preeminetly to reduce the price for them.

What is more, the revealed diamonds are claimed to be two times solid than usual diamonds. In addition, these diamonds differ in structure from those we know now. Can it be true? The scientists name the reason: diamond stocks were formed due to the meteor that fell down 35 million years ago to form a 100km crater. It sounds like this is the novel miner possessing unique qualities.

But with a wide range of pros there are some cons: mining process. We are living in hard times when natural resources are explored and ecology is dramatically aggravating with very little perspectives for restoring. Mining of this huge deposit will only add to the existing problem. We'll remind you that the second largest open-pit diamond mines are located in Russia in Myrny and the size of it really impresses: 525 meters deep and 1,200 meters wide! And it's needless to say how devastating mining process is, this or not only reason in this case made people to turn their heads to synthetic diamonds. But this is quite the other story.

Jewel City is Now Shouting about Diamonds

Johannesburg is often called Jewel City as far as this is the largest exporter of natural mined diamonds in the world (this is the home of about 300 diamond traders!). While the independent observer might think the life is rich and sweet their, it's actually not as fine judging from a huge slogan on one of the central walls of the city: Diamonds are a woman's best friend and a man's worst enemy.

The idea of making unique inscription belongs to ABOVE, a Californian street artist. He took a formal permission from local administration to paint the known phrase. But he hadn't disclosed his initial plans of amplifying it. Indeed, while women are crazy about diamond's beauty, men are raving the brains where to earn enough money for all those pieces of jewelry, or at least one of them. You know there is an unpublished tradition to propose with a diamond ring, and the thought of its high price tag can easily mar and often postpone this occasion. It can be one of the reasons that motivated ABOVE to write that slogan. Or the fact that the majority of men in Africa living in diamond-mine areas are taking pains every day to dig those tiny precious stones from Earth's bowels. We don't know the reasons but can clearly read his attitude.

Large Diamond Deposits Found in China

A small province in the east part of China made a huge stir all around the world – a large deposit of diamond has been found there. According to the latest estimates, there are more than 200 kilograms of diamonds under the Earth mantle. Of course, the experts give positive prognosis concerning even larger deposits that can be discovered during mining, but even of its initial size this is an unexpected discovery for more than last 30 years and this is the same term this mine can be mined for. Though India and South Africa have been always undisputed leaders for their largest diamond resources on the planet, however this is China that surpassed them both revealing the largest diamond deposit for the last ten years.

Though this discovery seems to enlarge the production of diamonds and thus to increase the variety of diamond jewelry, but according to prognosis it won't help to decrease the price for this stone in the country. Even if you decide to try your luck and dig the diamond by yourself, you won't succeed: the diamonds are the part of national resource of the country that can't be exploit by individuals. As it's seen, the diamonds are going to keep on their status of the most precious and inaccessible gems. What is left is to find solace in diamonds in a stamp.

How do YOU Treat Lab Created Diamonds?

There are many people who consider about buying lab grown diamonds, so they are looking for pros and cons of the latter. Confirmation of this can be found on such sites like answers.google.com or answers.yahoo.com and related. The questions discovered there impelled to ask the similar one and formulate own view of this issue.

To our mind, lab grown diamonds can be treated like alternative for economy and investment.
Economy is clear enough to comprehend, as lab grown diamonds are known to be cheaper than natural ones, though not by a lot. However, even the most expensive high quality created diamond would cost you approximately 30% less than a mined gem. But the economy isn't implemented at the expense of the quality of the stone. Lab created diamonds are cheaper due to the technology used to produce them, as it is less energy-, resource- and time-consumptive than mining process itself. Both ways of creating diamonds, either chemical vapour deposition (CVD) or high pressure high temperature (HPHT) methods result in growing high quality close-to-natural diamonds that possess all the properties of mined stones. Nearly identical to earth-formed diamonds, lab created gems are much cheaper, thus more affordable for a usual customer and let them save on jewelry to have more funds left for more essential needs.

Investment here is not the one used to in a sense of enlarging your income. It's more global and comprehensive, concerning the future of our children and the following generations. By springing for diamonds cultivated in the laboratory rather than those extracted from under the ground, you show you are thoughtful about the environment and you do not treat it carelessly like the majority of people. It's a known fact, that mining is devastating for the surrounding environment, turning the territory around the mine into a lifeless desert. At the same time natural diamonds are always a pretty nice target for smugglers. With these in mind, lab created diamonds are good in sense of safety being a perfect alternative for eco-conscious customers, who choose to be concerned about the future of the Earth we live in.
So, how do you treat lab created diamonds?

The Idea of Created Diamonds

Are diamonds beautiful? No doubt they are! Everybody will surely agree with this fact. But is the hole in the Earth several kilometers in diameter beautiful, or swirl of dust raised by giant truck wheels, or hectares of cut forests, or polluted rivers? Do they look great? Till recently it was impossible to comprehend the beauty of a diamond gem without making such harm to nature.

Probably the main idea of created diamonds is to be eco-friendly. Scientists and engineers spent years to study the nature of diamonds to find the possibility to recreate them synthetically. Supported by eco-conscious people and the department of environmental control they managed to reach success and found the way to grow diamonds in the laboratory. HPHT is already a known abbreviation that refers to high pressure high temperature technology. Judging from the name you may guess that diamonds are grown under intense pressure and high heat - in simulated conditions that are equal to natural. A grain of natural diamond and a handful of graphite put into a chamber under certain conditions turn into 100% real eco-friendly diamond.

Created diamonds are real ones with the same properties as mined diamonds have: optical, physical and chemical. They look like mined diamonds, they have the same diamond lattice structure and bands and they hardly be distinguished from mined ones. Lab grown diamonds are solid, wearproof, tough, fadeless, endurable and of course possess that stunning luster and brilliance diamonds are loved for. But what they are really praised for is their origin. Being grown by man created diamonds do not imply digging, thus make no harm to nature - no more air and water pollution, no more soil erosion, no more damage to rare species of flora and fauna. Currently created diamonds are number one choice for followers of green movement and the rest eco-conscious people.

To conclude, there is a possibility to comprehend brilliance and beauty of real diamond without causing damage to nature. Don't be indifferent to environment we live in and make a right choice when buying diamond jewelry.

Campaign Launched by WDC to Battle Conflict Diamonds

Do you know what WDC is? Those who follow the news of diamond trade market do know that WDC means World Diamond Council. This organization was found by diamond trading and diamond manufacturing companies in 2000. The main tusk of the Council (actually the aim it was created for) is to lessen the number of conflict diamonds that are sold to get income to support wars in conflict zones. The Council also analyzes the way diamonds are mined and traded. There are more than 70 members in the Council, they are mainly manufacturers, traders and jewellers. It also has 10 committees to report to the Council regularly. It's just a brief description of WDC.

This year WDC launched campaign to struggle with conflict diamonds. First of all this is a kind of informational battle. The Council upgraded its official website and now it looks like this: http://www.worlddiamondcouncil.org/. Last time it featured any changes 6 years ago. It's a great resource for international jewellers as well as traders and customers.

What can you find on the web – first of all it is the general information about the Council, its members, directors, committees and the work they do. There you are going to have an access to video materials, some documents and photos that prove the Council is trying to withdraw conflict diamonds from jewelry market. The website is also going to present latest news about its campaign and efforts.

Surely, the Council is trying to accentuate positive aspects of mined diamonds and want to heighten customer's interest in them. It also emphasizes the importance of diamond industry for the economies of the countries where they are obtained. But the thing is that there are too much information about negative features of Earth diamonds and there is a great shift of interest from mined toward created diamonds now. Right, currently when people are more eco-conscious and feel responsible for human rights violation they try to find the alternative ways for conflict things: in case of diamonds there are lab grown diamonds.

Gemesis, New Age Diamonds, Apollo Diamonds and other diamond manufacturers are making efforts to satisfy the needs of diamond-lovers. It should be said they are rather successful in it. Long years of experience proved diamonds grown in the laboratories with the usage of modern high technologies are real diamonds. Created diamonds are used in fine jewelry as well as in industry like abrasives and in production of various cutting-sawing-drilling tools. But what makes them better and will never make them conflict is their origin. They are grown in the laboratories without digging, mining and making any harm to environment. Lab grown diamonds are 100% conflict-free. Probably, they should have had better promotional campaign to reignite public perception of created diamonds.

By the way, what is your attitude towards laboratory grown diamonds? Please, feel free to leave your comments.

Rough White 196-carat Diamond Mined in Sough Africa This Month

September was a successful month for miners at Letseng mine in Lesotho, South Africa. They were lucky to find a sparkling piece of diamond rock of 196 carats in size. The distinguishing feature of this very stone is its perfect clarity and top color.

Letseng diamond mine belongs to Gem Diamonds Ltd, a leading diamond producer with a head office in London and mines all over the world. This very mine has a reputation of the one where the diamonds of exceptional quality and size are found. Three out of twenty world largest diamonds were found there including the Lesotho Promise sized 603 carats that was mined in August 2006.

Speaking about the price it is always shocking when it refers to natural diamonds. For instance, the aforesaid Lesotho Promise was sold for $12,4 million. A great deal of! The next giant was not long in coming – the Letseng Legacy, 493-sized rough diamond, was mined three years ago and sold for $10,4 million. The following year the 478-carat Light of Letseng broke the record of two previous stones and went for $18,4 million. The experts believe that the 196-carat diamond will deserve a decent price too.

The price for natural diamonds can be described as shocking, striking, unbelievable, incredible, whatever but it seems“high” is not enough to define it. One more example to prove it: the 507.5 Cullinan mined last year was sold in February 2010 for record $35,3 million – the highest price ever paid for rough diamond stone. Do you think all of them are worth the price?

Have a problem? Solve it!

It sounds like the rule of life. If there is any problem bothering you, find the way to solve it.

For example, people did not travel much before as it was rather inconvenient: either they had to walk or ride a horse, or go by carriage. Anyway, it was a tiresome trip. To solve the problem of distance people invented a car, bus, train and plain. Now you have an opportunity to travel wherever you want to and choose any vehicle for this purpose. However, transportation caused additional problems. Exhausted gases appeared to have devastating impact on the Earth's climate and environmentalists faced additional problem of intensive air pollution.

Actually, the same happened with diamond mining. Diamonds are needed, undoubtedly. Diamond is the hardest ever stone and is widely used for drill, saw and cutting instrument production. It is resistant to scratching - the characteristic that makes it precious as a gemstone as well. It is good for everyday wear, probably one of the reasons why wedding rings contain diamond but not any other gemstones. Natural diamond is also very tough, that's why it is resistant to breakage. It sounds like diamond is a perfect stone, don't you think so? It is impossible to imagine nowadays' life without diamonds. Nevertheless, diamond minting caused a range of ecological and not only problems. Naturally-occurring diamonds are formed under the ground, so digging is the most applicable way to extract them. Open pits occupy huge territories, which turn into lifeless area. It would seem local eco-systems have little to do with global eco-system, however everything on the Earth exists in close interconnection. The exhausted gases from multitude of mining vehicles get into the atmosphere and cause green house effect, which for its turn leads to a range of changes of the climate. You see, both scientists and environmentalists faced global problem! To solve it they decided not to mine diamonds but to create them.

Presently, cultured diamonds appear to be a great chance for better changes. They are absolutely environmentally friendly and need much less resources for creation. The best thing is that created diamonds are real diamonds! They meet the requirements of European Gemological Laboratory as well as International Gemological Institute. They are found to have the same structural, chemical and optical characteristics of the natural diamonds. Created diamonds are solid and wearproof and can be used for industrial needs and satisfy demand for diamond jewelery as well. And they solve the problem: they minimize negative impact on the environment! Our planet can be saved with the help of cultured diamonds.

Images in this post are the courtesy of it's respective owners: greenwashwatcher.com

Happy you — happy planet

What things make you happy? If you are a male, most likely you will feel happy when you buy a new mobile phone of the latest model released, or a new subwoofer for your music center, or a 65' plasma TV-set which will perfectly suits your living-room design, or a new lens to take pictures of those pretty birds twittering on a backyard. Girls are likely to feel happy both from cheaper things like a new pink silk scarf or a pleated skirt the one in a shop window, and from more expensive one like diamonds. Diamonds possess unique energetics that not a single girl seems to remain indifferent. They are known as the best friends of girls, so if you are a man and want to make a special present for your sweetheart, there is nothing better than diamond jewelery.

However, to make at least one girl happy our planet undergoes terrific devastation. Diamond mining implies digging, and to find only one carat of precious stone tones of rock have to be excavated. All those dust and exhaust gases from a great number of vehicles cause devastating impact on the Earth's climate such as greenhouse effect. And we are speaking only about one tiny diamond stone, now multiply it on 130 million — this is a number of annually mined carats of diamonds. So, it seems impossible to have diamonds without all these terrible devastations. In could be, but for cultured diamonds!

Cultured or created diamonds are grown to satisfy the needs of jewelery market and to minimize negative impact on the nature. They are grown in high-tech laboratories with minimum energy consumption and do not imply any kind of mining. They are of the same physical and chemical characteristics as mined diamonds. What is more important (for girls mostly) they possess real diamond gloss! Because they are real diamonds!

Thus, currently thanks to technological progress, hard work of scientists and support of environmentalists, it is possible to make girls happy without making any harm to nature. Think globally with created diamonds and be happy!

Images in this post are the courtesy of it's respective owners: happyplanetindex.org

Diamond mining and its impact on the environment

Diamond mining is a kind of invasion in local ecosystem, where its different elements exist in side-by-side balance. There are some facts how diamond mining influence the environment:

Energy use and air pollution
Two forms of energy are used for diamond exploration: hydrocarbons (oil, diesel, gas) and electricity. Usage of both of energy sources leads to emission of carbon (CO2) into the air, which in turn causes climate changes and global warming. Greenhouse gases causes by industrial activity are exhaled into the atmosphere and trigger various environmental problems. Reducing energy consumption will help to protect our planet.

Water
Water is used for diamond extraction but not chemicals for them not to damage precious stones. A great number of diamond mines are located in Africa, where water is scarce. So, it is even more important to keep natural water clean and not to pollute it during industrial process.

Balance in nature
There is a great number of living organisms on the planet, starting from micro organisms to animals and humans. All of them exist in a close contact creating unique natural balance. Human activity can be a thread to such a balance. Diamond mines are located in different parts of the world: from North (Canada) to South (Africa) and are usually situated in various ecosystems: coastal areas, deserts, plains and highlands.

Now, think about the impact of diamond mining on surrounding environment. Is it worth it?