Invincible Diamonds

The formation of crystallized carbon which we know as Diamonds needs very specific conditions to make this happen very high temperature and massive pressure, these conditions are only met at two places on our planet.

The first is at a meteorite impact site similar to Meteor Crater on the southern edges of the Painted Desert, the second is a little more difficult to get to roughly between ninety and two hundred and eighty miles below the surface of the earth.

This lovely stone is formed over millions of years under intense pressure and heat with volcanic activity slowly moving the rock housing the jewel toward the earth's surface by magma through volcanic pipes, once at the surface erosion plays its part and the gems are dispersed over a wide area and usually found along shorelines.

India are believed to be the first people to mine it nearly three thousand years ago and it was the ancient greeks who labelled the stone invincible quite a fitting name for this very durable gemstone.

Today commercial stones are mined in Canada, Siberia, Brazil and Australia the United States has sources of the gemstone in Arkansas and Colorado but they are not commercially mined.

Near the town of Kimberley in South Africa in 1870 the invincible stone was first discovered in Kimberlite rock omitted from volcanic pipes, this was to change the way the jewel is mined and these days tunnelling into Kimberlite pipes has given massive rewards.

© Photographer:Elena Kouptsova-vasic | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Diamond is the hardest natural material known to man and comes in pure colourless which is the most sought after gem and yellow, brown and varieties of green, blue, red and pink depending on inclusions.

About eighty percent of all mined stones are used for industrial purposes, because of its very hard atomic structure it is used on the tips of drill bits and saw blades, heavily included black Diamond is used a lot for these needs.

Only about twenty percent is used for quality gemstones and of this only a small portion are the pure flawless and colourless variety.

Because of it's unique hardness only another Diamond can polish the stone into the sparkling fiery finished article you find in a good jewelers.

Rough stones are held back when demand is weaker and introduced when supply is in need therefore always maintaining that this dazzling jewel has a high price and is a luxury investment, this method is only used with this jewel no other gemstones pricing is controlled in this manner.

The gemstones for use in Diamond Jewelry are graded using carat, cut, clarity and colour.

Carat is the weight of the stone with one carat equalling 200 milligrams

Cut is how the gem is shaped the brilliant cut has 57 facets that bend and reflect the light to perfectly show off the brilliance of the stone.

Clarity is a scale of the imperfections or inclusions in the jewel which determine how clear the stone is.

Colour is affected by the amount of impurities in the gem or flaws the more yellow in the stone the less it will be worth.

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