Conflict Diamonds

 

What are conflict diamonds you may ask. The short answer is "Blood Diamonds". The long answer is way more complicated because of the circumstances surrounding its acquisition. The term - conflict diamonds - is predominantly used to highlight the negative ramifications of the diamond trade in areas where it's mined and sold to finance an insurgency. Wars funded by warlords from the sale of these diamond. 

Thousands of lives are lost in Africa through conflict diamonds.  Blood diamonds more often than not originate from areas controlled by factions opposed to legitimate governments that are recognized internationally. Countries like Sierra Leone, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia are prime examples of countries ravaged by the trade in conflict diamonds resulting in the displacement and death of millions of people -normally mostly innocent.

It is very unfortunate that 65% of global diamond production is sourced from Africa but less than 10% of its value is returned for upliftment of its people. Case in point -  the Jwaneng Diamond diamond mine in Botswana is the riches diamond mine in the world, producing in excess of 12 million carats annually but it Botswana remains a third world country with minimal growth and investment.

This is because the  Botswana's government Debswana sells 75% of its diamond output to Anglo American / De Beers with only 25% taken up by the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company. 

The  "Lesedi La Rona" — which means "Our Light" in the Tswana - official language  Botswana- was valued at $70 million.

  

The history of the diamond industry has been fraught with worker exploitation, environmental destruction, government corruption and squandering of revenues. And that's not even mentioning all the "blood diamonds" used to pay for civil wars in countries ranging from Sierra Leone to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Diamond Heist

Diamonds are forever

Queen Elizabeth's demise threw the populace of several British colonized countries - having their independence - into a frenzy. Many rehashing age-old grievances of subjugation and atrocities committed by "Royal Family." Many of them loudly and unapologetically accused Queen Elizabeth and her predecessors of theft, calling for the return of  goods stolen from their countries. 

But for some obscure reason  none of them ever dared to ask for its return during Queen Elizabeth's lifetime. Several of them also criticized the British Monarchy and its global significance and power gained directly from slavery, funding slavery voyages and the enslavement of people of colour as a whole.

 

The stolen objects in question are the diamonds and not just any diamonds; but the biggest DIAMONDS ever found, flaunted as part of the "crown jewels" for decades. Namely the Koh-i-Nur Diamond, and the 3 magnificent Cullinan Diamonds, forcefully removed from India and South Africa respectively during the colonial period. 

Koh-i-Nur Diamond

Koh-i-Nur Diamond is considered the most expensive diamond in the world and weighs in at 109 carat (21.6 grams) and due to its colourlessness and uniqueness, is said to be priceless. It is fixed in place as the the main diamond of the British Crown. Prior to her demise Queen Elizabeth II was seen wearing it as a brooch. But at her funeral the precious Koh-i-Nur Diamond studded crown was clearly seen resting on top of her coffin. 

It is believed that the Brits somehow acquired this 105-carat diamond sometime in 1849 when the Dutch East India Company annexed the region of Punjab. The latest is that Pakistani lawyers have filed a petition demanding the return of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, citing that the gem is part of Punjab's heritage, and thus belongs to Pakistan. 

The Cullinans

The Cullinan Diamond in its uncut state weighed 3,106 carats but was subsequently cut and polished into 9 major stones and more than 90 smaller stones, the two largest stones named the Cullinan I (530.20 carats / 106,04 grams) and Cullinan II (317.40 carats / (63.48 g). King Edward had the Cullinan I (aka The Star of Africa) placed in the Imperial Royal Sceptre and the Cullinan II is mounted in the Imperial State Crown, both part of the Sovereign Crown Jewels. 

The Cullinan III is pear-shaped cut and weighs in at 94.40 carats, the Cullinan IV is a cushion cut diamond that weighs in at 63.60 carats and the Cullinan V is a triangular-pear shaped diamond and weighs 18.80 carats.  The first two mounted  on top of Queen Mary’s Crown and placed in the band of Queen Mary’s crown respectively. Both of which was later used by  Queen Elizabeth II as pendant-brooches.

Gift of Goodwill

It appears that these cut diamonds were each named after Sir Thomas Cullinan who owned at Premier Mine, South Africa in 1905 who sent the original uncut 3,106 carats diamond to London England. It is believed that after the Anglo-Boer War, the Transvaal government purchased the diamond for R2.4 million from Sir Thomas Cullinan. Then in 1907 it was presented to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom as a gift of goodwill on his 66th birthday. However this may not be absolutely true!

Be that as it may, many South African's want these diamonds to be returned to South Africa since it was taken under the guise of colonialism at the time. The 105 Cullinan gems of various cuts and weights is currently worth an estimated USD 400 million.  A sum of money that would more than suffice for upkeep of the South African tribal King's for the next 50 years. 

But the request to return looted good doesn't only relate to diamond nor just from India and South Africa but also from Egypt. Egyptians are calling for the return of the Rosetta stone and other cultural artifacts currently in a British Museum. They are insisting on its return since it depicts the cultural origins and their ancestry.

The Rosetta Stone is essentially a flat granodiorite rock onto which decree is carved in three (3) separate and distinct languages one below the other. The upper to texts are inscribed in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphics and Demotic scripts respectively, whereas the bottom language is in Ancient Greek. It was the first Ancient Egyptian trilingual text recovered in modern times, making the Rosetta stone the "key" to understanding and deciphering the Egyptian scripts.

 

Natural Diamonds vs Man Made Diamonds

Natural Earth Mined Diamonds vs Man Made Diamonds

The following 12 points places you in good stead when choosing to buy a diamond. It essentially alerts you to the differences between real natural earth mined diamonds and fake man made, lab grown synthetic crystals. Invest in real, not fake, invest in natural not unnatural, invest in quality not quantity, invest in diamond not CZ. Your beloved deserves real and not synthetic, deserves genuine not fake, deserve truth  not lies, and since diamonds lasts forever, hopefully so will your relationship. 

1)  Natural Earth Mined Diamonds are real diamonds, whereas, Made made diamonds are fake synthetic crystals.

2) Natural Earth Mined Diamonds are gifts from nature served-up from the Earths mantle, whereas Man Made Diamonds are created in a lab from Zirconium oxide powder.

3) The Earth's core forms organic diamonds which takes billions of years to form, whereas Labs grow fake Diamonds in a time of 1 and 6 weeks depending on the process used.

4) Natural Earth Mined Diamonds are the only gem stones that should be referred to a diamonds, whereas Man Made Diamonds should be referred to as engineered stones or cultured stones or just crystals.

5) Nature gifts us diamonds through kimberlite pipes or black magnetite and hematite. Lab created diamonds, are produced from zirconium oxide powder or graphite.

6) The conditions in which diamonds naturally develop when they are formed in the mantle is absolutely perfect, whereas Made made fake diamonds require a  highly controlled laboratory environments with technological processes that closely simulate the conditions where natural diamonds grow.

7) Natural Earth Mined Diamonds are the hardest of substances and ideal for hard wearing jewelry, whereas Man Made Diamond  is a carborundum quality substance  ideal for making industrial abrasives.

8) Natural Earth Mined Diamonds are normally bigger and more often than not gem quality, whereas synthetically grown diamonds are grown to between 1 and 1.5 ct and more often than not abrasives material quality.

9) Gemstone quality Natural Earth Mined Diamonds form through natural processes, whereas gemstones quality Synthetic diamonds are grown by one of two processes, HPHT (High Pressure and High Temperature) or CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition).

10) Natural Earth Mined Diamonds are graded by Gemology Institutes and are accompanied by certificates of authenticity, of late CVD Lab-Grown Diamonds are available with GIA Natural Diamond Certificates. This is equivalent selling a fake Rolex watch accompanied by genuine Rolex certificate of authenticity or certifying a corpse with proof of life. It's an unheard of paradox.

11) Natural Earth Mined diamonds are harder than synthetic lab diamonds. Diamonds measure 10 on the Mohr scale, whereas Lab diamonds measure 8.5 on the Mohr scale. That makes Lab diamonds as hard as Ruby and Emerald and Natural Earth Mined diamonds remains the king of hardness.

12) Natural Earth mined diamonds are known real or true diamonds,  whereas lab diamonds are known as faux diamonds, fake diamonds,  cubic zirconia , simulants, man made diamonds, synthetic diamonds,  unnatural diamonds, laboratory-grown diamonds, none of which deserves to be called diamonds.

The IGL (International Gemological Laboratory), GIA (Gemological Institute Of America), AGS ((American Gem Society), EGL (European Gemological Laboratory) and the IGI (International Gemological Institute) are professional institutions run by qualified gemologists, geoscientists and  mineralogists, all of whom abhor lab diamonds. So take their advice and steer clear of Zirconium powder which is more commonly used to make dentures and ceramic knives,  moulds for molten metals, crucibles, and other refractory material.

Diamond mines

DIAMOND MINES 

It is estimated that the world's ten largest diamond mines contains in excess of a hundred billion carats of recoverable diamonds. Hundreds of billions of carats that's worth Hundreds of Trillions of Dollars seems impressive, but the Popigai impact crater in  northern Siberia Russia contains "Trillions of Carats" of diamonds.  

What's even more astounding is that half of the world's biggest diamond mines are also located in Russia,  the largest being the Yubileyny diamond mine  situated in Sakha province in Yakutia. 

The second largest being the Udachny diamond mine , also situated in the Yakutia region of Russia.  The third biggest diamond mine in the world is the Mir diamond mine situated in the Yakutia region of Russia as well. This makes Yakutia and Siberia the most densely diamond encrusted region in the entire world. 

The Popigai Impact Crater

The trillions of carats diamonds of Popigai  are  mostly small polycrystalline stones which are unlikely to be  gem quality diamonds. Reason being, when the 8 kilometer diameter asteroid slammed into the ground,  with tremendous force, heat and pressure, the conditions needed to form diamond were present for a mere instant of time which actually converted the flakes of graphite graphite-garnet gneiss into diamond.  

Most of these diamonds are roughly 2.0 millimeters and under in size, more suitable for producing diamond abrasives than jewelry. That being said, Russia is also at the forefront of  "Russian Lab Created Diamonds" and other 'Diamond Simulants" that  imitates the appearance of a mined diamond, without the unique chemical characteristic and physical properties of the natural diamonds.. 

SOUTHERN AFRICA

The Orapa Diamond mine in Botswana on the other  hand holds the record for being the  largest diamond producing mine globally.  It is one of four mines owned by Debswana that is currently the world's leading producer of gem quality diamonds and responsible for about 30% of world output by value from its four mines. 

The Canadian owned Lucara Diamond mine also in Botswana produced the Lesidi la Rona which is a 1,109 carat diamond  and is the largest diamond found since 1905 which was sold for $53 million. 

The 1,109 carat Lesidi la Rona diamond 

About 711 kilometers south of Botswana lies the town of Kimberley  which is probably the world's most famous diamond producing area. The 'Eureka Diamond' was discovered on the banks of the Orange River near Hopetown, Kimberley in the Northern Cape.

This 428.50 carats 'De Beers Diamond',  was unearthed in Kimberley South Africa, as well as 'The Tiffany Yellow Diamond', which is without a doubt one of the largest fancy yellow diamonds ever discovered. Then there was also the flawless, 70-carat, step cut, champagne-coloured diamond, also found was found in the Kimberley Mine named 'The Kimberley'.

The Premier Diamond Mine  owned by Petra Diamonds situated in the small town of Cullinan near Pretoria, in Gauteng Province, South Africa, unearthed 'The Cullinan Diamond' which  is the largest gem quality diamond ever found.   'The Premier Rose'  comes from the same mine, and is one of the largest D-colour flawless diamonds in the world, weighing in at 137.02 carats. The magnificent 'Centenary Diamond'  was also found  at the Premier Mine.

Some 520 kiometers east, of Kimerley lies the Letseng Diamond mine in Lesotho that produced the 603-carat diamond named the 'Lesotho Promise'. It's production comes from two kimberlite pipes that produces the highest percentage of large diamonds, above 10 carats  of any known kimberlite mine, besides its average  carat output is nearly 20 times the industry production. 

In two years it produced over 330 carats of flawless white diamond. It can therefore be said that the Letseng mine which is majority owned by London based Gem Diamonds Ltd. is one of the richest diamond mines in the world. By implication Southern Africa have the largest diamonds, the most famous diamonds , and the most prized diamonds  in the world which even exceeds the large diamonds previously mined in India, and those of Russia. 

The 603-carat 'Lesotho Promise' diamond 

INDIA

India is no longer a source for rough diamonds because most of its diamond mines have been depleted decades ago and its production usurped by its colonial masters. Case in point, the famous Tavernier Blue diamond, was originally mined in India. 

This 116 carat Blue Indian rough was the head stone of  a Hindu God statue in Tamil Nadu as long ago as 1666.  It was subsequently stolen,  which was later sold by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier to  Louis XIV of France during 1668 for the equivalent value of 172,000 ounces of pure gold, and a letter of ennoblement. A few years later Louis XIV had his court jeweler Jean Pitau recut the stone and had it set as a hatpin. This new stone was known as the 68 carat "French Blue".  

In 1792 his great-grandson Louis XV had the "French Blue" recut for use as "The Medal of The Order of the Golden Fleece" but is was stolen and re-emerged in London some 30 years later as the Hope Diamond. A Chromolithograph shows that the 116 carat Blue Indian rough was cut to become the Brunswick, Hope and Pirie. 

Then there is the 'Koh-I-Noor Diamond' of India mined  during the middle ages. Legend  relates that the diamond is 5000 years old and was referred to in Sanskrit writings as the Syamantaka jewel.  The Koh-I-Noor was initially set in the famous Peacock Throne manufactured for Shah Jehan, but after the fall of the Persian empire found its way back to India. 

When the Britsh clashed with the Sihks, the Dutch East Indian Company claimed the diamond as a partial indemnity, and then presented it to Queen Victoria in 1850. Today the Koh-i-Noor diamond is in Britain illegally and is owned by the  British royal family as part of the Crown Jewels.

Then there is also the Mogul-cut rose, 300 Carats 'Orloff Diamond' with  exceptionally  pure clarity,  slightly bluish green  also mined in India which subsequently found its way into the Diamond Treasury of Russia in Moscow. 

Then there is the 140.50 Carats 'Regent Diamond' also discovered in India in 1698 with an uncontested reputation for the the most beautiful diamond in the world. It was acquired by Thomas Pitt, Governor of Madras, who sent it to England to have it cut to end up in The French Crown, of Louis Xv then in a sword then back to a crown for Charles X. Its current resting place id the Louvre in Paris.

In South Africa, diamonds was the fiefdom of Jews, the likes of Diamond baron Harry Frederick Oppenheimer and Ernest Oppenheimer  AKA Anglo American.  Initially Cecil John Rhodes protégé of the Jewish Rothschilds bought up claims of small mining operations with Rothchild money.  

Jewish brothers Harry and Barnett Isaacs (changes their names to Harry and Barney Barnato), bought worked-out diamond mines and mined the abandoned blue ground heaps. They later sold their mining company, the 'Barnato Diamond Mining Company' to Cecil Rhodes and together formed 'De Beers Consolidated'.

Later the Antwerp diamond Bourse, had become the most important diamond-trading center in the world and served for a very long time. Between 80 to 90% of the world’s uncut diamonds, and as much as half of all polished diamonds pass through Antwerp. At one time there were as many as 700 Jewish diamond-cutters in Antwerp, predominantly from the Hasidic community. 

So, with the Israeli connection with the Diamond Cartel in Palestine  and its Jewish Antwerp connections De Beers controlled diamonds and diamond-mining in South Africa for more than a 150 years. 

But all good things come to and end. When the Jain community of Palanpur in Gujarat began to migrate to Antwerp, they brought cheap labour and excellent diamond cutters and polishers skills from Surat - (The new diamond capital of the world). 

Essentially they “cut and polished diamonds in rupees and sold them in dollars” to the point that Indians now have come to control almost three-quarters of Antwerp's diamond industry. It is estimated that 9 out of 10 diamonds are polished in India, and have superceded Antwerp and Israel as the key diamond cutting centres of the world.

1 ct diamond ring

1 ct diamond ring

As a teenager, I loved  photography and over time I acquired some really decent photographic equipment. As you all know, other than natural earth mined diamonds, nothing last forever, so when digital photography with its fancy TFT screens, CCD chips, CF and CD cards hit the markets, the analogue photographic equipment just had to go.  I then started the incline toward digital. So in a nutshell, I had a good understanding of depth of field, aperture correction, shutter compensation and lenses etc, basically photography in general. Meanwhile, I've been a photo journalist for some time, but that was a really long time ago. 

My wife is a professional wedding photographer who has been plying her trade for more than 35  years.  As an electronics engineer, I really don't consider myself as a photographer, since I don't earn a living from photography like my wife does. I refer to myself as a "happy snapper" and most weekends I assist my wife as a backup wedding photographer, shooting cutaways.  So, what does photography got to do with diamonds you may ask. When Photographing Weddings you do get to see a whole lot of diamonds.

After having said all that, I must admit that between my wife and I, we've never ever seen 1kg of diamonds in toto.  We've done more than 1000 weddings and if we could hypothetically, collect all the natural earth mined diamonds perching on the rings of the brides and the occasional natural diamond embedded in the  rings of the grooms we've ever photographed, it would certainly weight less than a a litre of water, neither would all those little stones fill a litre bottle. 

I have yet to attend or photograph a wedding with a natural earth mined solitaire diamond bigger than 2.1ct because we've done one with a 2ct princess cut diamond ring. We've even done a wedding with a 5 ct ring but it wasn't a solitaire but rather a quad princess-cut diamond double frame bridal set. like the one below. Now that's a sparkly worth taking a photo of. Anyway weddings with diamond rings above 5 ct are rear but they do occur.

5ct quad princess-cut diamond double frame bridal set

Natural earth mined diamonds larger than 1 ct have a much higher value than smaller stones because they are found less frequently in nature. Meaning that the average wedding ring / engagement of the average couple, sports a single diamond of under half a carat which is physically about 4mm in diameter. In fact, most solitaire natural earth mined diamonds on most wedding / engagement rings range between .2ct and .5ct and are typically, 2mm to 4mm in diameter. (Diamond mm to ct Conversion Table) It takes 5 x 1ct natural earth mined diamonds to weigh 1 gram, so we are really talking negligible weight. There is a tendency in the jewelry market to make rings appear larger by clustering 7 x .20ct stones to form a halo ring. Or to use several smaller chips peppered on a 6mm setting and pass it off as a 1 ct ring. Tough the total diamond weight would equate to 1ct, its value is a far cry from a 1ct solitaire natural earth mined diamond. 

1 gr = 5.00ct
2 gr = 10.00ct
3 gr = 20.00ct
4 gm = 25.00ct
5 gm = 30.00ct

Anyway, can you just image the value? Pessimistically speaking, if we had to value said diamonds at $200 per carat (.2 g) then 5000 carats which would equate to 1 kilo which would be worth a $1,000,000. But, like I said pessimistically, because the grades of some diamonds are far greater than others. To mention an incident, a few years back, I'd  been to a jewelry auction where a single stone, 10ct diamond was sold off for as much as $125 0000; and according to some pundits, this was a real bargain.  Comparatively speaking, what this means is that the contents of the "1 liter bottle", with its tiny pebbles are almost worthless, because it represents the "chaff of the wheat" after the diamond sifting and sorting processes.

Chips, Mackle & Melee Diamonds - "offal" the entrails of the diamond trade

So if you were to buy a natural earth mined diamond, settle on a 1 carat for anything less is considered,  chips, mackle, melee diamonds, which are the names given to diamonds between .001 carats to 0.18 carats in weight. In one word, its  "offal", the entrails of the diamond trade that nobody really wants.

Natural earth mined diamond are real diamonds as opposed to the synthetic stuff they're selling at all jewelry stores and online. Stay away from lab diamonds, made made diamonds and cubic zirconia because  they have even less value than "offal."

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5 movies about diamonds

5 Movies about Diamonds

Throughout the entire world, Diamonds are sought after for their allure, their brilliance, their value, their fascination and the temptation they present. The temptation I refer to, is to steal them, purely because they cost way too much to buy and a handful of diamonds can equate to hundreds of millions of dollars.  As such several movies have been produced highlighting how people are tempted by the value of Diamonds. The following movies are not necessarily in any particular order but depicts the extremes some people would resort to, to get their hands on those valuable and sparkly gems. 

Admittedly most of these films are fictional  but there is a few of them based on true events, for example the  'Antwerp Diamond Center heist'. The snatch-and-grab at the jewelry shop in the 'Carlton Hotel, Cannes, France' and the diamond heists at the 'Millennium Dome, London, England' worth $700 million and the 'Diamond exhibit Heists at the Museon', a science museum in The Hague, Netherlands are all actual events upon which Holywood movies are based.

1) 'Flawless' is a unique property of the most expensive diamonds and is also the name of a movie. This British fictional crime movie by the name 'Flawless' is about, a soon to be retired janitor (Michael Caine) who convinces a frustrated diamantaire (Demi Moore) to help him steal a batch of diamonds from their employer, the London Diamond Corp. 'Flawless' has a timid plot but over all its a a rare gem.

2) 'Blood diamond' is a movie set during the civil war in Sierra Leone in 1990s. It depicts a story of human suffering and violence and how the guerrilla insurgency rape women, exploit  and enslave children to pan for diamonds. The main plot revolves around a pink diamond the size of a bird's egg, that draws the attention of a South African mercenary played by Leonardo DiCaprio who has been smuggling diamonds across the borders embeded in the flesh of live sheep. While the sub plot is about a journalist intent on fingering the white-collar criminals in the diamond trade.

3) The 'Pink Panther' is a movie about a fictional pink diamond with an internal flaw shaped like a leaping panther. The movie stars police inspector Peter Sellers and David Niven and his nephew Robert Wagner as  thieves. Both thieves  intending to steal the diamond, the nephew attempting to setup his uncle for the theft. However there is a real pink panther diamond better known as the 59.60 carats oval pink star that sold on auction in Geneva for a whopping $83 million.

4) 'Diamonds are Forever' stars Sean Connery as investigator extraordinaire MI6 agent tracking the mysterious activities in the world diamond market by impersonating a diamond smuggler. The movie was first flighted in 1971. In the movie, it turns out Charles Gray is stockpiling South African diamonds  in order to depress prices by dumping the gems in his space-based laser satellite weapon, intent on auctioning off nuclear supremacy to the highest bidder. Several smugglers who pass on the diamonds from one to the other are killed in the process but professional smuggler Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) Tiffany.



5) 'Diamond Cartel' is the newest upcoming action movie about diamonds, directed by Salamat Mukhammed-Ali and written by Magamet Bachaev. However this movie was made in 2011-2013 but recut and redubbed by US based Cleopatra Entertainment, for the english market in 2017,  Movie stars Armand Assante, Peter O'Toole, Bolo Yeung and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, etc. Assante makes a deal with Hong Kong triad crime boss to purchase the "Star of East Diamond". but before the deal is made, his former lover and her new man robs him. They are hunted down my  Assante 's henchmen  and the couple have to fight for their lives.

Kimberlite

Kimberlite

The Mir Russian diamond mine is the most expensive hole in the world and it is owned by the state-controlled company Alrosa. Mir mine also known as Mirny, is approximately 525 meters deep with a diameter of 1.2 kilometers.  It's been dubbed 'Diamond City' and is valued at a cool £13 Billion. From the image below, it looks like the mining town was  struck by a giant meteorite. That being said,  the crater contains approximately 300,000 cubic meters of acidic water, which roughly equates in volume to 120 Olympic-size swimming pools. 

The Big Hole

This huge open mine is man made  and produces about a quarter of the world's diamond output. Its vast riches helped transform the USSR under Joseph Stalin, from a war torn impoverished nation into a post-World War2 superpower. But open mining ceased in and around 2004, when a series of underground tunnels and shafts where excavated that produced more than six million carats of rough diamonds.

Kimberlite is diamond bearing blue rock pushed to the earths surface by volcanic magma.
The open mine is almost as large as the town of Mirny, Sakha Republic, Yakutia, Siberia 

Be that as it may, just last week mine workers recorded dangerously high levels of underground water in these very shafts, resulting in the installation of extra pumps to pump it out. However, on Friday morning whilst more than 150 people were working these underground shafts, torrents of water flooded the mine shafts and tunnels, which may have burst through from the water filler crater. 

EMERCOM (Ministry of the Russian Federation for Affairs for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters) sent in squad of rescue divers to search for the missing workers. At least 142 of the 151 were safely brought to the surface but 9 miners are still missing, presumed dead. Meanwhile Alrosa made a net profit of 22.7 billion rubles, equating to $376.37 million in the first quarter of 2017 and produced some 3.19 million carats of diamonds in the previous year.

The Mir open pit diamond mine is situated in Sakha Republic, Yakutia, Siberia some 4,200 kilometres east of Moscow. It's an area that exhibits some of the harshest weather conditions in the world, with Winters that  can extend to seven months, and flaunt temperatures that often drop as low as -40 degrees Celsius. There are harsh conditions in mining in general. Lives are lost, for the sake of gold and diamonds. People are killed for diamonds. Conflict diamonds fund conflict in war-torn areas.  The illicit diamond trade promotes poverty because more than a million diamond diggers in Africa earn less than a dollar a day. Besides diamond mining causes environmental devastation. 

The blue rock is Kimberlite,  a word that originated from the name Kimberley, 
as in the Kimberley Diamond mine in South Africa.  
The green acidic water is the same as that found in the Big Hole Kimberley.

Mining Accidents

The last major mining accident in 2016 cause by methane explosions that ripped through Severnaya coal mine in Russia resulted in the death of 36 people miners, and 6 years earlier a similar explosion claimed the lives of 91 miners. recently four workers were trapped and have died  in the Tau Lekoa gold mine in Orkney, north-west South Africa, as the result of a seismic activity. In the Chilean Mine Rescue, thirty-three men, were trapped in a copper/gold mine 700 meters underground, some 5 kilometers from the mine's entrance and was fortunately rescued 69 days later. Last year 40 zama zamas died in an explosion in a decommissioned Harmony Gold mine ("zama grave yard") in Welkom in the Free State. But the biggest methane threat is in Yamal Peninsula Russia where sinkholes and craters are regularly forming due to methane eruptions as permafrost melts.

Blood Diamonds

Be that as it may, Diamonds are shiny, yet soaked with the invisible blood and the misery of the poor, purely so that the rich can bask in their glory from the proceeds of their diamond, platinum and gold mines. So, seriously, why would you want to invest in  diamond earrings, diamond studded watches, diamond rings and diamond broaches anyway?