CRATER DIAMONDS

CRATER DIAMONDS

Diamonds are found in several countries throughout the world though almost 65% of the entire World's diamond are mined on the African Continent in mines scattered throughout South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Angola  and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The world leading diamond giant De Beers situated in Kimberley controlled almost 90%  of the diamond market share, and manipulated diamond price up to the late 1980s prices. But during the past 25 years De Beers lost control of the diamond industry, for the first time in a hundred years, resulting in supply and demand unaffected by their monopoly. Russia and Canada, are also two of the leading diamond-producing countries, closely followed by Australia.  

Diamond, Jasper, Quartz and Mica prospected in an open mine.

Be that as it may, we find that the world's leading consumer of diamonds has virtually no production. Millions of carats of diamonds are annually consumed by the American public  in the United States, either in the form of beautiful jewelry or as loose stones for jewelry production.  However, the only active diamond mine in the US, is the Crater of Diamonds Mine near Murfreesboro, Pike County, Arkansas.

Day visitors at the Crater of Diamonds State Park

This North American 3.7 km² public park attracts thousands  of visitors both locals and foreign tourists annually, in their quest to find diamond. Their primary purpose may be to experience prospecting first hand, though they have hope in finding  a valuable stone buried somewhere in the vast volcanic crater. Diligence and knowing how to dry sift for diamonds can lead to very rewarding experience. Most people do find grey rocks and several other brown and yellow, minerals like garnet, jasper, agate, amethyst, and quartz. Mica a mineral also commonly found in volcanic soil and is found in abundance which many people mistake for diamond. If you find a diamond, it is yours to keep, no questions asked. 

Young couple prospecting for diamonds

The  reality TV  program "Suddenly Rich" showcased a young couple who were down on their luck with only sufficient funds to celebrate their anniversary as a one day picnic at the Murfreesboro State Park. Within minutes of their arrival, whiles  the boyfriend went to hire a sieve to sift through the dirt, the young lady started  digging with her  hired shovel.  The first dig uncovered a shiny stone which she thought it was a shiny piece of quartz, only to be surprised later when an official at the Diamond Recovery Centre at the State Park examined it and told her it was in fact a diamond and offered her $30 000 on the spot for it. She was elated but reluctantly declined his offer even though the pair of them were virtually pennyless. Weeks later after having her newly discovered rough diamond evaluated by a gemologist of note, the diamond turned out to be one and half carats in weight, colour D (ice white) with clarity somewhere between vs and vvs, worth over $300 000. 

A 1.5 carat ice white diamond worth more than $300.00

Another such open mine is the massive Popigai crater situated in Taymyr Peninsula of northern Siberia, Russia , which is at least 25 times larger than the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas.  It is believed that these diamond bearing craters were formed when asteroids  measuring between 2 to 8 kilometers in diameter slammed  in to the earth at  hypervelocity speeds of 20 km per second. The intense flash of heat and pressure it produce is the exact conditions needed for diamonds to form.  In the case of Popigai it is believed that flakes of graphite in the Archean graphite-garnet gneiss that converted into tiny diamond under 2.0 millimeters in size, are more suited for producing diamond abrasives that jewelry. Since it is also believed there was insufficient time for large, single-crystal stones of great clarity and purity to develop, it is  unlikely that the Popigai Crater will become the site for a gem-diamond mining operation. 

But that is just speculation by the west because there are lots of news reports of major diamond deposit containing trillions of carats of gemstone-quality diamonds that Russia has kept secret. If the Russian government should prospect the crater and bring those diamonds to market, the value of diamonds and the diamond will fall like ninepins due the huge diamond surplus. The largest consumer of diamonds in the world will instantly loose the investment value in diamonds and mind you, so will the the rest of the world.

State Park official showing a family the diamond prospecting ropes.