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June 20, 2011 News for Diamonds

2011-06-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Diamonds and pearls: Quick change Jennifer Lopez steps out in two bejewelled outfits - Daily Mail

The 41-year-old stepped out in two outfits that were equally bedazzled. First up Jennifer emerged from her hotel in a grey tunic garland with tiny silver and gold sequins which resembled diamonds. She opted for trousers rather than a skirt, slipping her ...

Publ.Date : 2011-06-15T10:07:14Z

Diamonds aim to put a curse on Devils - Sunday Sun

AFTER yet another rain-off at Plymouth on Friday night, the Newcastle Sapphire Engineering Diamonds and the Devils hope to stage the return fixture at Brough Park tonight (6.30). Both sides are without their top riders due to injury. Former Diamonds ...

Publ.Date : 2011-06-19T08:22:16Z

Diamonds hoping to get home today - Newstalk ZB

The remainder of the Australian netball team looks like finally getting home today having been stranded in Auckland since Sunday's test against the Silver Ferns. The Diamonds have been left waiting for a flight home because of the travel disruption caused ...

Publ.Date : 2011-06-15T08:05:33Z

Dodgers dodge loss in rematch with Diamonds - News-Herald.net

They met earlier in the season and the Dodgers had their way, winning 7-0 over the Diamonds. The 10-13 year-old girls softball tournament game rematch Saturday at Eaton Ruritan Park was a much closer contest. The Dodgers knew their opponents had improved ...

Publ.Date : 2011-06-15T19:04:06Z

Mugabe vows to defy rules on 'blood diamonds' - WA today

ZIMBABWEAN president Robert Mugabe has promised to sell diamonds from his country's controversial Marange mine ''sanctions or no sanctions'', and the country that would be his biggest customer, India, is being urged by the industry there to buy Zimbabwe ...

Publ.Date : 2011-06-19T17:33:28Z

Legends of Famous Diamonds

2011-01-04T08:14:00.000-08:00

The Cullinan Diamond

The largest diamonds ever found in South Africa and named for the owner of the mining company. The Cullinan diamond was 3106 carats. It was cut into 105 beautiful diamonds. The largest is the Star of Africa, a 530 carat diamond. In 1907 this diamond was given to King Edward VII of England and set into the Royal Scepter. It is kept, along with the other British Crown Jewels, in the Tower of London.

The HOPE Diamond

A 44 carat blue diamond set as a pendant with 16 white diamonds surrounding it and a chain of 45 white diamonds. This diamond has an infamous reputation and fluoresces with a unique reddish color when exposed to ultraviolet light. Donated to the Smithsonian.

The Excelsior Diamond

A large diamond weighing 995 carats was found in 1893 by an African mine worker. The name Excelsior, meaning higher, came from the stone's original shape - flat on one side and rising to a peak on the other. It was cut into 21 diamonds, the largest being 69 carats. The diamonds were sold to undisclosed parties. The Excelsior 1 was purchased in 1996 by Robert Mouawad.

The Regent Diamond

Found on the Kistna River, India in 1701, this 410 carat stone originally known at the Pitt. The diamond was sold to Thomas Pitt who sent it to England to have it cut and polished. The result was a brilliant cushion shaped diamond of 140 carats. In 1717 it was sold to the the Duke of Orleans, regent of France, from which it gets the name Regent. The royals used the stone in many ways including being set in the Crown of Louis XV, as a hair ornament of Queen Marie and as an adornment in the hat of Marie Antoinette. After the French Revolution the stone was set in the hilt of Napoleon Bonaparte's sword. Napoleon's wife, Marie Louisa, carried the Regent back to Austria upon his death. Later her father returned it to the French Crown Jewels. Today, it remains in the French Royal Treasury at Louvre.

The Taylor-Burton Diamond

This 69 carat diamond was originally known as the Cartier diamond after Cartier Inc. paid the record price of $1,050,000 for the gem at auction. The next day Richard Burton bought the stone for Elizabeth Taylor. It was then renamed the Taylor-Burton diamond. She first wore the pear shaped diamond publicly at a party for Princess Grace's 40th birthday in Monaco. In 1978, she sold the diamond to build a hospital in Botswana. It was subsequently purchased by Robert Mouawad.

Famous Movies about Diamonds

2010-08-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

8 of Diamonds (2006)

Eric Roberts, Tim Kazurinski, and Heather Prete star in producer/director Scott Prestin's twisting tale of dishonor among thieves. When three career criminals fail in their attempt to steal a flawless diamond, no one can be trusted and temptation lies around every corner.

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

After extensive travels, James Bond (Agent 007) returns valiantly from South Africa having completed his mission to kill his arch enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. However, Bond arrives only to discover that there’s a pressing case waiting for him: a large amount of diamonds has been stolen from the South African mines and two offbeat assassins are killing everyone in the smuggling ring, one-by-one. Bond goes undercover as Peter Franks, diamond smuggler, in search of recovering the merchandise. "Diamonds are really forever"

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Gentlemen may prefer blondes, but this blonde bombshell prefers diamonds, and lots of them! Glamorous showgirl Marilyn sets sail for France, intent on marrying a rich, yet boring, beau. But anything can – and does – happen with the beautiful and fun-loving Jane Russell acting as chaperone. From celebrated director Howard Hawks, this musical comedy classic features Marilyn’s signature rendition of the hit show tune “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.”

A Fish Called Wanda (1988 )

Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) brings her new secret lover, Otto (Kevin Kline) to England to help her and her lover George and stuttering animal lover Ken (Michael Palin) steal $20 million in diamonds. Wanda and Otto then turn in George to the police so they can have the loot for themselves, but George has already moved the diamonds and only he knows where they are. All four of the criminals start double-crossing each other to try to get to the diamonds before anyone else. Wanda tries to find them by “getting close” to George’s barrister, Archie Leach (John Cleese), because if George pleads guilty he will tell Archie where the diamonds are to cut his sentence. Absolute hilarity ensues.

Remember the scene where Rose said, "I want you to draw me like your French girls. Wearing this...Wearing only this. ..." Actually the gem that Rose wearing "The Heart of the Ocean" - a blue diamond necklace based on the famous Hope Diamond. (the actual Hope diamond was never on the Titanic). It is a blue diamond which is one of the rarest gems in world.

Titanic (1997)

After winning a trip on the RMS Titanic during a dockside card game, American Jack Dawson spots the society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater who is on her way to Philadelphia to marry her rich snob fiance Cal Hockley. Rose feels helplessly trapped by her situation and makes her way to the aft deck and thinks of suicide until she is rescued by Jack. Cal is therefore obliged to invite Jack to dine at their first-class table where he suffers through the slights of his snobbish hosts. In return, he spirits Rose off to third class for an evening of dancing, giving her the time of her life. Deciding to forsake her intended future all together, Rose asks Jack, who has made his living making sketches on the streets of Paris, to draw her in the nude wearing the invaluable blue diamond Cal has given her. Cal finds out and has Jack locked away. Soon afterwards, the ship hits an iceberg and Rose must find Jack while both must run from Cal even as the ship sinks deeper into the freezing water.

The Thailand's Hidden Gem

2010-04-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

The still unnamed diamond took a small tour of the world when it was brought to Thailand by the Thai Diamond Manufacturers Association to be exhibited in the Thai Board of Investment Exhibition in Laem Chabang. The exhibition garnered so much attention that there were daily lines of over 1 mile long just to see the yellow-brown stone.

In 1995, a group of Thai businessmen led by one Henry Ho purchased the 545.67 carat diamond from the De Beers group with the intention of presenting it to the King of Thailand in 1997 in recognition of his 50th year on the throne. Before the presentation was made though the diamond still had several trips to make. The first was to the Vatican where the diamond would receive the Papal blessing by Pope John Paul II and then back to Thailand where it would be blessed by the Supreme Buddhist Patriarch and the Supreme Imam in Thailand.

The diamond was then presented to King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the 50th anniversary of his coronation day in 1997 where the King gave the diamond it’s name, The Golden Jubilee. Initial plans were to mount the Golden Jubilee in the Royal Scepter, later discussions centered around mounting the stone in the Royal Seal. Neither has ever happened.

The Golden Jubilee Diamond has been exhibited at Henry Ho’s 59-story Jewelry Trade Center in Bangkok, the Central Department Store in Lad Prao (Bangkok) Thailand, and internationally in Basel (Switzerland), Borsheims in Omaha, USA (owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.), and Gleims Jewelers in Palo Alto, USA. The Golden Jubilee now resides in the Royal Thai Palace as part of the crown jewels.

An interesting aside to the diamond has to do with the financial collapse of the markets across South East Asia in 1997. Fearing that the people of Thailand would see this gift as too opulent and an arrogant purchase in such economic times, the Thai government decided it would be best to down play the gift and tell the people that the King was gifted a large Topaz.

To this day most Thai’s still believe the Golden Jubilee is a large Topaz and not the worlds largest cut diamond. It’s believed that this reasoning is what kept the diamond from being mounted in the Royal Scepter or the Royal Seal and definitely why there are so few pictures of the diamond after 25 years.

Diamond News about Super-Hard Diamonds that was Found in Meteorite

2010-02-03T01:05:00.000-08:00

Two new ultra-hard types of diamond have been found in a meteorite from Finland.
The ultra-hard carbon crystals were created out of graphite under the intense heat and pressure of the meteorite impact.
Though the new diamonds are definitely harder than regular diamonds, the crystals were too small to test for their exact hardness.

Scientists are using diamond paste to polish a slice of meteorite stumbled onto something remarkable: crystals in the rock that are harder than diamonds. A closer look with an array of instruments revealed two totally new kinds of naturally occurring carbon, which are harder than the diamonds formed inside the Earth.

"The discovery was accidental but we were sure that looking in these meteorites would lead to new findings on the carbon system," said Tristan Ferroir of the Universite de Lyon in France. Ferroir is the lead author of a report in the new diamond in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The researchers were polishing a slice of the carbon-rich Havero meteorite that fell to Earth in Finland in 1971. When they then studied the polished surface they discovered carbon-loaded spots that were raised well above the rest of the surface suggesting that these areas were harder than the diamonds used in the polishing paste.

More informations at Super-Hard Diamonds Found in Meteorite

Diamonds are indeed maybe forever, but they are not forever in view

2010-01-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

EVERY diamond is a story as old as the earth and will outlast us all. Diamonds are very indeed forever but they are not forever in view.

For more than a half-century the whereabouts of one of the world’s most celebrated diamonds, the fabled Wittelsbach blue was unclear. Every person with knowledge of great gems was likely to be familiar with the stone: A grayish blue diamond taken to Europe in the 17th century from India and was given in 1664 to Infanta Margarita Teresa by her father, the king of Spain and eventually becoming a fixture of both the Austrian and Bavarian crown jewels. In 1964 the stone passed into private hands, and later its whereabouts becomes a mystery. Last December 2008, the Wittelsbach blue suddenly turned up at auction, the centerpiece of Christie’s London sale of very important gems. Expected to acquire $15 million, the cushion cut stone which described as a fancy deep grayish blue and was fought over by rival diamond dealers and hammered down in a matter of minutes for the extraordinary price of $24.3 million, the most ever paid for a diamond at auction and a sum that may also have rendered the Wittelsbach blue, by weight, the most valuable product on earth.

The buyer was Laurence Graff, a billionaire diamond dealer whose clients run to other newly minted billionaires, and in short order its new owner made a series of startling decisions about the stone. First, he had it recut, reducing it from 35.52 to just over 31 carats, to eliminate the chips and “bruises” inevitable in a stone of its age but also to improve its clarity, brilliance and grade. Then he renamed it the Wittelsbach-Graff and struck an agreement with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to display it.

More Stories at Out of the Blue, Prestige and Riches

Diamond is no longer nature’s hardest material?

2009-11-03T22:33:00.000-08:00

It is said that Diamond is the hardest material known to man. But according to scientist," a rare natural substance, called lonsdaleite, which is made from carbon atoms just like diamond, has emerged as 58 per cent harder than the gemstone, according to a report in the New Scientist.

An international team, led by Zicheng Pan at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, simulated how atoms in two substances believed to have promise as very hard materials would respond to the stress of a finely tipped probe pushing down on them.

The simulation revealed that the first one, wurtzite boron nitride, withstood 18 per cent more stress than diamond, while the second, the mineral lonsdaleite, 58 per cent more.

Rare mineral lonsdaleite is sometimes formed when meteorites containing graphite hit Earth, while wurtzite boron nitride is formed during volcanic eruptions that produce very high temperatures and pressures.

Read more Diamond News at Itv News - Diamond is no longer nature’s hardest material

Diamond for Tears Video and Lyrics by POETS OF THE FALL

2009-05-03T05:15:00.000-07:00

"Diamonds For Tears"

In these days of man made wonders we still bicker over flies
When you come seeking for forgiveness, I'll be forced to choose my side

If I deny you what you're searching, do I do it out of fear
Am I ruling out my reason, killing that which I hold dear

Out of my way I'm running, with an excuse just underway
Reality's so daunting, and I've got no way to explain

Cos when you're sleeping right next to me, I know you're the one
So when I hear you calling my name, why do I turn away to run
I guess that's why it's raining diamonds, sweet happiness in tears
Crying heaven shed your diamonds, diamonds for tears

In the light of recent findings, there's no greater taint than grace
But to relinquish all our bindings, always finds us out of place

If I rested here a while more, would you hold me to your heart
If I knew what it was meant for, will I know to play my part

Out of my way I'm leaving, another excuse before I'll stay
Reality's applauding, I know I don't know the right way

Cos when you're sleeping right next to me, I know you're the one
So when I hear you calling my name, Yeah, I know you're the one
I guess that's why it's raining diamonds, sweet happiness in tears
Crying heaven shed your diamonds, diamonds for tears

Is it a lost cause,
Can we overlook this taint
Are these the dead laws
Like a doubt eating the saint

And though I fear these shackles, like my darkness closing in
I will hold out my hands, I will hold out my hands

Cos when you're sleeping right next to me, I know you're the one
So when I hear you calling my name, I'll know the good I've done
I guess that's why it's raining diamonds, sweet happiness in tears
Crying heaven shed your diamonds, diamonds for tears

Conflict Diamonds in Sierra Leone Video Clip

2009-02-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Warning: This Video contains violence

The people of Kono, Sierra Leone have experienced the horrors of civil war and blood diamonds. Mohammed Dabo shares his story. From the series Diamond Road, produced by Kensington Communications Inc. (www.kensingtontv.com). Copyright 2007.

To see more clips of Mohammed and the people of Sierra Leone, visit http://www.diamondroad.tv

Sierra Leone diamonds are well-known among the jewelry world to be one of the best quality diamonds available today. This is perhaps the main reason that blood diamonds have wreaked the havoc they have had over so many years. The first diamond was found in Sierra Leone in the 1930s. Since then, a story of brutality and violence has unfolded in this small West African country. In 1968, Siaka Stevens became the prime minister of Sierra Leone. Recognizing the value of their diamonds, he made a large profit out of illegal diamond mining and trading. In the ensuing years, more and more diamonds were being exported illegally rather than through legal means. Most of these transactions were overseen by Stevens'' right hand man Jamil Mohammed, a Lebanese.

Diamonds are really forever

2009-01-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

The “diamond" word comes from the Greek word, "adamas" which means unconquerable. The fact that diamonds are made up of pure carbon, and diamonds are the hardest natural substance known to man. Diamonds have long been a sign of wealth and fortune. Queens and Kings have worn these forms of concentrated carbon and even more countless millions people over time have yearn after them. These gems can be in form of transparent, truculent white, yellow, green, blue, or brown. We must understand the real value of these stones, and ultimately their role in war, it helps to first understand their origins and where they come form.

Diamonds are the most often used form capital by the rebels in Angola, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo use to purchase weapons (also known as the blood diamonds or conflict diamonds). The earliest diamond gems were found in India and Borneo, were they were found in riverbeds. In the early eighteenth century, deposits similar to those in India were found in Brazil. The story of diamonds in Africa began between December 1866 and February 1867, when a 15-year-old found a transparent stone on his father's farm, on the south bank of the Orange River. Within the next fifteen years, African diamond mines produced more diamonds than the India, the previous leading producer, had in the last 2,000 years. This increase in production occurred at the same time as the diamond mines in Brazil experiences a sharp decline in their production. The depletion of mines in Brazil assured that supply would remain stable and diamond prices would not fall as they previously had when Brazil over produced in the 1730s.

The World's Smallest Diamond Ring

2008-10-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Inside Science : The World Smallest Ring

As we have seen the World's Largest Diamond. We feature the world smalllest diamond ring.

Above:The picture of the world's smallest diamond ring, it measures 300 nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick and 5 microns (millionths of a meter) across. The diamond is not mounted on a ring, but the ring itself. Made by scientists at the University of Melbourne, carving out a circular structure in an artificially made diamond. It will be used to access single photons coming out of a tiny impurity region inside the diamond.

True Blue Diamonds can be revealed through UltraViolet test

2008-03-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

Hope Diamond originally came from French crown. New technique can create huge diamonds Huge African diamond sells for over $12 million...

The Hope Diamond glows a mysterious red when exposed to ultraviolet light, a finding that scientists say can help them "fingerprint" diamonds and tell the real ones from artificial.

The phosphorescence comes from boron in the gem, the same element that makes it appear blue in normal light, explained Jeffrey Port, curator of the National Gem Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

The 45.52-carat blue Hope Diamond is on display at the Natural History museum, but Post said lighting conditions there don't allow it to be shown in ultraviolet light. He said the museum hopes to make a video of the stone when it glows — which continues for some time after the light is turned off — so visitors can see that.

Blood Diamond - Movie about Conflict Diamonds

2008-01-01T22:24:00.000-08:00

A movie about Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a man who is use in torture. With a strong survival instinct, he has become himself the key in the business of conflict diamonds. Political unrest is rampant in Sierra Leone as people fight tooth for tooth. Upon meeting Solomon, and the beautiful Maddy, Archer's life changes forever as he is given a chance to make peace with the war around him.

A story setting in Sierra Leone, where the fisherman Solomon Vandy dreams on the day that his young son Dia Vandy will become a doctor. His dreams are shattered when the rebels invade his village and kidnap him to work in the diamond mines. Solomon finds a huge pink diamond and while hiding it, the commandant of the rebels sees, but the rebels are attacked and Salomon is arrested by the government army. While in jail, the wounded commandant tell the prisoners that Salomon found the stone, and the mercenary smuggler Danny Archer from Zimbabwe releases Salomon and proposes to exchange the diamond by his missing family. Using the idealistic American journalist Maddy Bowen, Danny locates the wife and daughters of Salomon in a refugee camp, but is informed that his son has been recruited by the rebels. Salomon and Danny consolidate a partnership, with Salomon looking for and finding his son, and Danny looking for the diamond and finding redemption.

"A story about the fisherman, a smuggler, and a syndicate of businessmen match wits over the possession of a blood diamond."

Hen with Sapphire Pendant : The Lost Jewelled Egg

2007-12-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

The Hen with Sapphire Pendant is one of jewelled Easter egg made and under the supervision of the famous Russian jeweller named Peter Carl Fabergé in 1886. This pendant is for the Tsar, Alexander III of Russia. It was a present of Alexander III to his wife, Tsarina Maria Feodorovna. It is also, the one of eight eggs which are currently lost. This jewelled easter eggs was made by Fabergé for the Russian Tsars between 1885 and 1917. The eggs are made-up of precious metals/hard stones that are decorated with the combinations of enamel and gemstone. The term "Fabergé Egg"' become a synonym of luxury and the eggs are regarded as masterpieces of the jeweler's art.

List of Fabergé Eggs made by Peter Carl Fabergé.

More of the jeweled eggs (whereabouts of these Fabergé Eggs) on this link.

Russel Simmons selling bling for African people

2007-11-30T10:48:00.000-08:00

The fashion mogul and hip-hop Russell Simmons said that he's selling blings and diamonds to help raise money for the development and empowerment of Africans. - NEW YORK

49-year-old entrepreneur declared his "Green Initiative" jewelry, which was manufactured and designed by Simmons Jewelry Co. Twenty-five percent of proceeds from the sales will go towards the Diamond Empowerment Fund, that will support institutions, like schools and colleges, in South Africa and Botswana and help in economic development.

His recent visit to South Africa and Botswana to tour diamond mines and factories coincides with efforts by human rights groups to raise awareness about the so-called conflict diamonds, which have fueled and funded wars in Africa. Fighting forces sell the gems to raise funds for weapons. Millions have been killed in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The president of Simmons Jewelry Co., Scott Rauch said the company's diamonds are blood conflict-free.

"Our purpose was to see how we could have an affect on the diamond industry," he told a packed news conference Tuesday...

Source: FoxNews

The Country of Poverty and Diamonds : Sierra Leone

2007-11-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

POPULATION: 5.7 million.

CAPITAL: Freetown.

THE ECONOMY: Gold, bauxite, titanium ore and especially diamonds are about two-thirds of foreign exchange income before war and instability wrecked their economy. Only in June this year, experts said that Sierra Leone has made little progress in tackling corruption and has squandered foreign aid, leaving its most vulnerable citizens as destitute as they were before the civil war ended.

Electricity and piped water mains are very rare even in the shanty towns that make up the Freetown.

Few of paved roads in the rest of the country, and 70 percent of the country's population survives on less than $1 a day.

ETHNICITY: The Temne & Mende each takes almost one-third of the population. Lokko, Sherbro, Limba, Susso, Fulani, Kono and Krio are other country's popular groups.

RELIGION: Mostly, the people practices traditional African religions. One-third of which are Muslims, who live mainly in the north and catholic minority is just concentrated in the capital.

LANGUAGE: English is the official language but Temne, Mende and Krio (Creole) are also spoken. Krio serves as the commercial language in the capital.

GEOGRAPHY: Sierra Leone is about 71,740 sq km (27,699 sq miles). It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea to the north and east and Liberia to the southeast. The climate is tropical.

SOME OF COUNTRY'S POPULAR HISTORY: It won independence from Britain in 1961 and suffered years of dictatorship, coup attempts and corrupt rule.

-- President Siaka Stevens made the country a one-party state in 1978, quit in 1985 aged 80 and chose former army chief Joseph Momoh as successor.

-- Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebelled against Momoh in 1991, starting a decade of war that ended in early 2002 after an estimated 50,000 people were killed.

-- Having been deposed once in 1997 by a coalition of army officers led by Major-General Johnny Paul Koroma and the RUF, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was re-elected in May 2002. The RUF, standing as a political party, won little support in the ballot.

-- A Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the country's government and the United Nations in 2002 to try those most responsible for human rights violations during the later stages of the civil war.

-- In July 2007 Sierra Leone's war crimes court sentenced three rebel militia leaders to long jail terms for "some of the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes ever recorded". In August it convicted two former leaders of a pro-government militia of murder and other crimes. Rebel leaders are on trial.

-- The August 11 parliamentary polls were won by the opposition All People's Congress with 59 of the 112 seats. The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) of outgoing President Tejan Kabbah, which dominated the last parliament, won 43 seats. The PMDC, a breakaway of the SLPP, took the remaining 10.

The Diamond Simulants : "Looks-like" of the Real Diamonds

2007-11-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

Diamond simulant are the imitation and referring to any stone material that has the appearance of diamond but it does not posess the characteristics, atomic structure, chemical composition or physical properties of natural (true) diamond. Common simulants like Cubic Zirconia, Color less Synthetic Corundum (sapphire), Synthetic Spinel, Strontium Titanate, Yttrium Aluminium Garnet (YAG), Gadolinium Gallium Garnet (GGG), and Glass (Paste).

Diamond Simulants Subcategories:

1. Gems - the stones that are natural with the same appearance like of the diamond. Examples of this stones are sapphire, topaz, beryl, quartz, zircon; all of these gemstones in their colorless
forms.

2. Natural Synthetics - These are were the manufactured stones that have the same chemical composition, atomic structure, and physical properties of a natural counterpart. They are man-made, which includes: Synthetic Rutile, Synthetic Sapphire, and Synthetic Spinel.

3. Artificial Synthetics - These are the manufactured stones that have no natural counterpart, which include: Strontium Titanate, Yttrium Aluminate (YAG) and Cubic Zirconia.

4. Composites - Stones that are created from more than one stone to enhance particular properties. For example glass which is very soft which prevent the surface from scratching a layer of harder material was bonded to the surface. These stones are also known as doublets.

The reason why this simulants was created for over the years because diamond is so desirable yet so expensive. These are more affordable to buy than the real thing and to the untrained eye look almost the same. Diamond simulants ("look alikes") are not the same as synthesized diamonds. Due to its low cost and very close visual likeness to diamond, cubic zirconia has remained the most gemologically and economically important diamond simulant since 1976.

Current popular diamond simulants include cubic zirconia (CZ) and moissanite. Technically they are not diamonds, artificial or otherwise. Recently the trend has been to market these simulants less as artificial or synthetic diamonds and more as new gems in their own right. Of course, natural diamond remains a wonderful luxury item - if you can afford it.

Martini garnished with Diamonds

2007-11-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

This new called "diamond-tini" is garnished with a 1.06-carat sparkler and a registered price tag of $15,000, according to Reuters reports. Guests at the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo can now order a cocktail that is made from this item.

Bernard Viola, the hotel's manager told the Reuters News service. "It's a timeless drink and diamonds are a girl's best friend, so you combine both this time of year in Japan when proposals are rampant."

This extravagant vodka martini is prepared for tableside to a serenade of the Shirley Bassey hit "Diamonds Are Forever." The diamond garnish is later set in a ring by the local jeweler.

No diamond-tinis have been sold yet, but Viola is confident that the hotel's bartenders will be able to sell at least three a month.

"There is a market for everything you create," he said. "Today it is all about luxury."

A largest D-color Flawless Diamond

2007-11-22T12:35:00.000-08:00

This brilliant cut D-color flawless diamond weighing 84.37 carats displays during a preview at Sotheby's auction house in Geneva....Sold on Nov. 14 at an auction called ‘Magnificent Jewels’ in Geneva.

This has to be the largest D-color flawless diamond on auction and this breathtaking cut will oblige everyone for its estimated cost worth US$15 to 16 million (euro 10.5-11.2 million).

Definition of D-color:

Diamonds are graded by color, starting at D and to Z. The fact that this colorless stones are graded D, which are treasured for their value and rarity, and highest on the Diamond Quality Pyramid.

This diamonds appear colorless, and may actually have slight yellow or brown tones. The color grades include P and Q, and although it appears to be beautiful, they are less rare and therefore less valuable. To appreciate this simple beauty of each individual stone, you should contrast diamonds side by side with a jeweler.

$10.4 million worth for one of the Huge Rough Diamond

2007-11-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

Sold at $10.4 million, one of the largest rough diamonds is expected to be transformed into a polished stone of more than 100 carats. The huge 493-carat rough diamond from Lesotho, the 18th largest ever recovered in the world, was sold to Graff Jewelers of London at a tender in Antwerp.

Miner Gem Diamonds explained that the diamond recovered at Letseng le Terai mine in September, was sold for an expensive price of $21,000 per carat, against a global average diamond price of $81 per carat. The largest rough quality-gem diamond ever found was the Cullinan Diamond, found in South Africa in 1905, at 3,106.75 carats. "The Letseng Legacy was named to reflect the growing legacy that the Letseng le Terai mine is creating as a producer of significant diamonds," Gem Diamonds said in a statement.

Letseng Diamonds, 70 percent owned by Gem Diamonds and 30 percent owned by the government of Lesotho, has now produced three of the world's top 20 diamonds, including the 603-carat Lesotho Promise. Graff Jewelers were also the winning bidder for the Lesotho Promise in 2006. A brilliant-cut white diamond, which weighs 84.37 carats, was sold at an auction in Geneva on Wednesday for nearly 18.2 million Swiss francs ($16.21 million) to Guess Jeans founder Georges Marciano, Sotheby's said. That diamond was the second most expensive stone ever sold at auction, eclipsed only by the 100.10 carat "Star of the Season" diamond, which went for $16.5 million in May 1995.

A Tea-colored Diamond Found in the Park

2007-11-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

Chad Johnson, found a diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park, and he almost threw away his precious find. A cube-shaped rock that have been plucked out of his sifters, turned to be a 4.38-carat, tea-colored diamond.

Chad, 36, made the dig on Saturday at the park and left his equipment in a locker. When he came back Monday morning, he made the discovery. Crater of Diamonds State Park, which opened in 1972, the world's only diamond-producing site open to the public, and visitors can keep the gems they gather. The largest diamond found at the park was the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight, a white diamond found in 1975.

Johnson discovered the second-largest diamond at the park this year. In June, a Louisiana man found a 4.8-carat stone. More than 700 diamonds have been found there this year. Since moving to Arkansas from Iowa in February, Johnson said, he was living off money made by selling diamonds. He only recently took a job at a convenience store, partly because he "got tired of selling diamonds to make ends meet."

Park officials declined to speculate how much money Johnson could get for the diamond. Johnson suggested he expects much more than what he is used to getting. "If someone offers me that much money, it's theirs," Johnson said. - MURFREESBORO, Arkansas.

The First Makers of Man-made Diamonds

2007-11-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

Baltzar von Platen

In 1949, ASEA hired a team of five scientists and engineers, headed by Erik Lunblad. The top secret project was called Quintus and Von Platen's laboratory became known as Quintuslaboratorium. Von Platen, an extraordinary man who had invented the fridge (refrigerator). That is why ASEA took him seriously. His dream was nothing less than to invent a machine that could make Koh-i-Noor diamonds.

The scientists from General Electric, in 1950's were not the only ones that try to make diamonds. In a magnificent old hunting palace on the outskirts of Stockholm, the Swedish electrical company ASEA had already been funding an eccentric independent scientist called Baltzar von Platen to look into making diamonds

Like GE, Von Platen's team knew that high pressure and high temperature was needed to break graphite's atomic bonds. And like General Electric, they too had a difficult time in making a machine stronger enough to create those conditions. Their diamond press was made of a completely different design. It had six pyramid-shaped anvils, which when pressed together formed a sphere around a sample of graphite. The whole structure was encased in a strong copper jacket and suspended in an alchohol-filled tank at 6000 atmospheres of pressure. But it was highly dangerous.

If a leak appeared, it would create a high-velocity alcohol jet capable of drilling right through a hand. The whole device was capable of producing over 50,000 atmospheres and the graphite sample was surrounded by thermite which, although it could raise the temperature by 2000°C, was unstable and, combined with the alcohol, potentially explosive.

Von Platen made sure that the most valuable members of the team left the room when the press was operating. The problem for the Swedish team was that their machine was so complicated that every time they put the apparatus under pressure and something broke, it took a whole day to unravel and rebuild it. Eventually they too realised that by adding iron carbide to the graphite sample it lowered graphite's melting point and that as more and more graphite was dissolved in the metal, it became saturated. They were sure that they had cracked the theory of making diamonds.

On February 16th 1953, nearly a year before General Electric, Erik Lundblad ran the high pressure press at 83,000 atmospheres and about 2000°C for a full hour. On unwrapping the carbon parcel, he was astonished - he found diamond crystals, no bigger than grains of sand. Unfortunately for Von Platen, ASEA decided to keep the experiment a secret in case a competitor stole their secret, and the experiment was not duplicated or published - a condition of recognition for scientific inventions - until after General Electric's announcement.

As a result the world has never officially recognised that it was Von Platen's team who in fact had made the first synthetic diamond.

Lesotho Promise : The Giant Diamond Ever Found

2007-11-09T07:25:00.001-08:00

The biggest diamond to be found in 13 years, the "Lesotho Promise," was sold at an auction for more than $12 million and is expected to be sold in excess of $20 million once it is cut up. - ANTWERP, Belgium.

The 603-carat (120 gram) diamond, named after the tiny African mountain kingdom where it was found, went under the hammer at the Antwerp Diamond Centre and was sold to the South African Diamond Corporation, owner of luxury jewellers Graff.

The 10th largest white diamond ever to be found, it will be cut into a large heart-shaped diamond and several smaller stones which will then be sold. The uncut diamond is a third bigger than a golf ball.

Johnny Kneller from the South African Diamond Corporation said that once it was cut up, he expected to sell the stones for a third more than the auction price.

"We can't say for sure but we hope it's going to sold over $20 million," Kneller said.

Diamonds have long been a status symbol and were famously serenaded as as a girl's best friend by Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".

Growing affluence has boosted sales and busy shopping streets such as London's Bond Street are awash with jewellers and luxury goods stores offering right-hand diamond rings for well-heeled women.

The biggest rough diamond ever found was the Cullinan at 3,106 carats, while the second largest, the Excelsior, was 995 carats. Both were found in South Africa.

The Lesotho diamond was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine high in the mountains of the tiny nation which is surrounded by South Africa, by a woman who was sorting through the rocks.

"She started screaming and all the staff thought she had been electrocuted," said Clifford Elphick, head of Gem Diamond Mining, which owns 70 percent of the mine.

He said he was very pleased with the price that the gem had been sold.

Raining Diamonds in Uranus and Neptune

2007-11-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

Uranus seen through the space shuttle voyager 2

The said planets contain a high amounts of methane, which the UC Berkeley researchers now shown can turn into diamond at very high temperatures and pressures found inside these planets.

Experiments done at the University of California, Berkeley, are the indication of future explorers of our solar system that they may find diamonds falling down through the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus. Berkeley - October 1, 1999

"Once the diamonds form, they will fall like raindrops or hailstones toward the center of the planet," explained by Laura Robin Benedetti, graduate student in physics at UC Berkeley.

The team, led by Benedetti and Raymond Jeanloz, professor of geology and geophysics, produced these conditions inside a diamond anvil cell, squeezing liquid methane to several hundred thousand times atmospheric pressure. When focused a laser beam on the pressurized liquid, heating it to some 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, diamond dust appeared.

They report their experimental findings in a paper in the Oct. 1 issue of Science. The demonstration that methane can convert to diamond as well as other complex hydrocarbons in the interiors of giant planets like Neptune hint at a complex chemistry inside gaseous planets and even brown dwarf stars. Brown dwarfs are small, dim stars barely larger than the largest gas giant planets.

"This is opening the door to study of the interesting types of chemical reactions taking place inside planets and brown dwarfs," Jeanloz said. "Now that technology is able to reproduce the high pressures and temperatures found there, we are getting much better quality information on the chemical reactions taking place under these conditions."

"It is not amazing that chemistry like this happens inside planets, it's just that most people haven't dealt with the chemical reactions that can occur," Benedetti said. "The interior of these planets may be much more complicated that our current picture."

A simple calculation, for example, shows that the energy released by diamonds settling to the planet's core could account for the excess heat radiated by Neptune, that is, the heat given off by Neptune in excess of what it receives from the sun.

"What's exciting to us is the application of this high-pressure chemistry to understanding the outer planets," Jeanloz said.

"As more planets are found in unexpected orbits around other stars, the effects of internal chemical processes will need to be further clarified in order to obtain a general understanding of planet formation and evolution," the authors concluded in the Science paper.

Possible structure of Neptune

Our solar system's other gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn may also contain diamonds produced under such conditions, though they contain proportionately less methane than Neptune and Uranus. Based on theoretical calculations, Neptune and Uranus are estimated to contain about 10 to 15 percent methane under an outer atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. (See the above image for presumed internal structure of Neptune)

Several groups of researchers have suggested that the methane in these planets could conceivably turn into diamond at fairly shallow depths, about one tenth of the way to the center. Nearly two decades ago, a group at Lawrence Livermore National laboratory shocked some methane and reported the formation of diamond before the stuff evaporated. That group was led by retired scientist Marvin Ross and researchers William Nellis and Francis Ree.

How are Diamonds Created or Formed?

2007-11-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

The Origin of Diamonds...

The largest body of water, the oceans, had microorganisms that lived and died millions of years ago. When they died there bodies fell into the ocean floor. After that, the bodies decomposed, and what's left was almost pure carbon. Then the crust of the earth surface is in constant motion. The movement is due to what you call the tectonic plates and the continental drift.

When one of the tectonic plates were pushed under another the bodies of the microorganism, now carbon, that is also buried under tons of rock. The carbon is subject to extreme pressures by the rock pressing down upon it and by extreme heat, which is ranging between 1100 to 1400 degrees Celsius. If the carbon being acted upon is pure then the diamond will be colorless which is normal for diamonds. If nitrogen or sulphur is also included in the carbon then some color may be added to the diamond. This process preserves the unique crystal structure that makes diamonds the hardest natural material known. The arrangement of the atoms causes the diamonds to have tighter atoms than any other substance in the world.

When volcanoes erupted, this microorganisms, which are now diamonds, are forced to the service. Conventional diamonds are mined from explosive volcanic rocks (kimberlites) that transport them from depths in excess of 100 kilometers by volcanic action.

Man Made, in the year 2004 scientists from Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory managed to produce gems that are harder than any other crystals. These man made diamonds were produced using a gas mixture. The crystals that were produced were so hard that the instruments and other paraphernalia used to make them broke. The great part about these man made diamonds is they were created in less than a day. Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure, about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. That is a very simplistic view and also very hard to do. Modern methods use a very complicated process that requires the crystals to be grown using a special high growth-rate chemical vapor deposition.

Then the crystals were exposed to very high pressure and temperatures make them even harder. There is then a production of a chemical reaction that yields what is called carbon rain. The carbon rain atoms arrange themselves in the same structure as the container or seed used to catch the carbon rain. As they arrange themselves into a tight composition, they turn into man-made diamonds. Most of the man made diamonds are yellow in color. This is due to the chemicals used in the creation process. Man-made diamonds are very difficult to distinguish from natural ones. A trained jeweler could tell the difference if he could detect the different growth patterns and the lack of inclusions. Inclusions are the tiny bits of material that are usually imbedded in a natural diamond and are considered a flaw.