Canadian Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

There are good rocks and bad rocks, little rocks and big rocks, but no matter what size a diamond is, it is a good rock. This piece of compact carbon is the hardest of all gemstones and the most varied in color and purity. Once, in Brussels, Belgium, a bag of raw diamonds was poured out on the table in front of me. There was every color you could imagine from black through to clear as glass. The clear ones were worth a lot of money as gem stones, but all the others were valuable as industrial diamonds. Shaped and set into tools, they can cut any metal. Powdered and set into saw blades they cut or grind stone. Off-color diamond grit is used to polish gem quality diamonds. The complexity of how a diamond ends up on a lady's finger is quite startling.


Thought to be the oldest of gems, diamonds started off millions of years ago as carbon deposits, mainly in association with Kimberlite volcanic pipes far below the earth's crust. The carbon was placed under tremendous temperature and pressure within the Kimberlite, being squeezed upwards in a shape resembling an upside down carrot. Through erosion, the diamond "carrots" were worn away and diamonds are found on the surface, in streams, or in gravel eskers left by glaciers.


Once diamonds are discovered, the search is on for the Kimberlite pipe, from which the remaining diamonds are mined. Extracted, cleaned and sorted, diamonds are sent to the Central Sorting Office in London, UK. Rough diamonds from around the world are brought in to be sorted and graded in preparation for selling in what is known as a sight. A sight is held 10 times a year, about every 5 weeks, for a very select group of diamond dealers. There are only about 120 such dealers, called sightholders ,who are allowed to come to the CSO sight to buy the rough. At the sight, each sightholder is simply given a shoebox-sized carton of rough diamonds to either buy or refuse. There is no picking through or asking for more or other types. You are given what you get. You take it or leave it and leave your money on the table. The diamonds don't get shipped until they are paid for. Internally, at the upper levels of the diamond business, there is a great deal of honor and trust. From the sightholders the chain starts back across the world for retail processing. The, centuries old, diamond culture ostracizes those who break the trust at any of the various level of sale, before you, the final unprotected customer, pick out your stone.


There is a Company, formerly known by the name of De Beers, that controls the diamond market. If they were to dump all the diamonds they own on the market, the price would fall dramatically. The wise will always use a reputable dealer for, what can be, a big investment. There are ten different brilliance levels that effect the grade of a diamond and one can easily be defrauded on that basis alone. Cut also effects the value. It takes approximately ten years to learn the trade of Diamond Cutter. The work that goes into shaping, faceting and polishing the smaller, gem quality diamonds represents their major cost. Unless you have the ability of a Gemologist, diamonds are not a good investment, this is a highly complex market and you will get stung coming and going. Beware! Because diamonds can now be manufactured, very high quality diamonds are being implanted with a registration number, visible only under black light. A good Cubic Zirconia can fool all but an expert with special equipment.


Canada has recently become a producer of raw diamonds. It is expected that, over the next few years, we will become the world's third largest producers of diamonds. Many mining companies are scrambling across the North West Territories in search of these rocks in Kimberlite pipes. With great difficulty and at great cost, Canadian deposits have been found and quality diamonds are being extracted. I have had several investment offers by various Mining companies, but have shied away. The risk is to high for me. For those who have the spirit of adventure and the spare money, I suggest you read the following Diamond HTML and their links, before investing. As Napoleon said, "Time spent in Reconnaissance is never wasted."