More on diamonds
When I visited the Natural History's Museum's exhibit on "The Nature of Diamonds" in my city, the presentation said that the "red" colored diamond is the rarest... But... I could be wrong.
Okay, what I read, was DeBeers.Com, shut down General Electric's ability to make "lab simulated" diamonds. The this with lab diamonds are they are too small for gemstone quality carats. But, diamonds are the strongest substance on Earth, so... They can still be used for weapons... You make more money making laser guided missles and perfectly cut military vehicles with diamonds, not to mention the "computer chip" applications, than you do with gemstones...
Also, to mine diamonds, one has to find in the Earth a group of rocks that geologist call, Kimberlite pipes. The pipes are where there is an old long line of specific rocks, most garnet and emerald stones, that the Earth developed to "mark" where there are possible diamond targets. Even if you mine out the pipe, you may only get a pound of diamonds, relative to the tons of rock, not to mention wrecking the ecology of strip mining, to get them...
Kimberlite pipes were named after a the first place the largest DeBeers diamond mine was established--called Kimberley, South Africa some time from the late 1800's or the early 1900's...
Lastly, DeBeers IS the only group that wholesales diamonds and not only the Russians can't do ANYTHING about it, no one can... It is 'cuz DeBeers started WHEN diamonds were rare, then they LIED about it, monopolizing the industry. So even if the Russians flood the market, their diamonds can't be sold, DeBeers will take their scientists AND declare the diamonds unfit for gemstones or weapons. Don't ask me... RESEARCH AND READ!!! It's called price-fixing, racketeering, exhortion and monopolizing... Besides, as much as DeBeers owns, they'd just buy the Russian diamonds anyway. Which is probably what their doing currently. Oh, and there are Kimberlite pipes in Canada...
The only interesting facts I admire about diamonds are that some are fluorescent (glow in the dark) and the various colors may be caused by other atoms in the carbon-carbon structures and my favorite is the diamond formed was probably a carbon-13 isotope, meaning it was from live animal--meaning it came from a dinosaur... Oh, as far as colored by synthetic means, the color doesn't last, so I've been told.
And where I learn my stuff, just a hobby of mine... I'm usually tellin' the jeweler about diamonds!!!
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