Diamonds & beryl

Blue Hope - 45 cts

Premier Rose - 137 cts

Cullinan - 520cts

Great Mogul 188 cts

Regent 141cts

Orloff 194 cts

Diamond

Formula is C; hardness
= 10 (hardest of all
know minerals)
Refractive index = 2.41
(great dispersion)
(g
p
)
Adamantine luster
admas, Greek for
invincible uncut
invincible,
diamonds look greasy
Birthstone for April
p

Diamonds - facts

Diamond first discovered in India, prior to

400 BC
Today, 75
75--80% of the world's natural
diamonds are used for industrial purposes
and 20
20--25% for gemstones.
gemstones
It is the chemical and physical properties of
this mineral that give it the superior cutting
ability for industrial use.
Diamond coatings
g have improved
p
on
diamond's industrial applications in cutting
and in aiding the performance of
semiconductors. It is the optical properties
of this mineral that give it the superior
beauty
y and durability
y to be used as a
gemstone.
Faceting diamond, in order to maximize its
optical properties, depends upon a
knowledge of geometry.

Famous Oppenheimer diamond

S ith
Smithsonian
i Institute
I tit t

Form (crystal shape)

Diamonds form
octahedral crystals

C diamond versus graphite

Diamond cuts
cuts

The most popular cut

for diamonds is the
brilliant cut followed
b the
by
th Marquises
M
i
and
d
Pear--shapes
Pear
In the 50s and 60s the
step ccutt was
as the rage
age
The cutting centers are
New York, Antwerp,
and Israel with the
smaller diamonds
being done in India

The perfect cut

Too thin

Too deep

Perfect

Valuable diamonds!!

The Steinmetz Pink is probably the finest pink diamond in the world
presently. It was first unveiled in Monaco in May, 2003, and was
discovered in southern Africa and is the largest Fancy Vivid Pink
diamond known in the world.
Pink diamonds are extremely rare and usually found in much, much
smaller sizes. The Steinmetz Pink weighs 59.60 carats and has been
graded as Internally Flawless, an extremely rare and coveted clarity
grade. Given its extraordinary importance, the Steinmetz Group took
approximately 20 months to cut the diamond
diamond.

22 carat flawless
fancy purple PINK
DIAMOND sold for
$7,000,000 !!!

Famous diamonds

The Allnatt, 101.29 cts, South

Africa, largest naturally vivid
yellow diamond in the world.

The 616, South Africa, This 616 ct

crystal, as found and remaining
uncut, is the largest single diamond
crystal in the world.

Rare diamonds
The O
Th
Orange Fl
Flame
3.23 cts, South Africa

The Moussaieff Red

5.11 cts, Brazil,
The rarest red

The Incomparable
Diamond, 407.48 cts,
Congo,
g , third largest
g
cut
diamond ever recorded

The Ocean Dream, 5.51 cts, Central

Africa, deep blue-green color of this
diamond is very rare

Expensive
p
and Brilliant D
Grade Diamond
An 84.37-carat
84 37-carat white
diamond touted by
for its size and
beauty sold at
auction Wednesday
to Guess clothing
company founder
Georges Marciano for
just under $16.2
million (November,
2007).

A square, 32.01-carat emeraldcutt di

diamond
d that
th t a billionaire
billi
i
philanthropist bought for her
90th birthday sold for $7.7
million ((Oct 2009))

A white diamond from a mine in Lesotho

weighing nearly 500 carats is reported in
London on September 21, 2008. It is expected
to be worth 10s of millions of dollars.

The Cullinan Diamonds

The nine
Th
i Cullinan
C lli
diamond
di
d pieces
i
(plus
( l 96
smaller brilliants). The original uncut diamond
weighed 3106 carats or 1.33 pounds!!!
Cullinan I
Cullinan VII & VIII

Cullinan II

Cullinan III & IV

Cullinan II

530 carats!!

New Diamond Discovery!

I this
In
hi photo
h
supplied
li d by
b
Petra Diamonds CEO
Johan Dippenaar, holds
the 507.55 carat white
diamond recovered at the
C lli
Cullinan
Diamond
Di
d Mine,
Mi
South Africa, on Sept. 24,
2009. Petra Diamonds Ltd.
says a diamond the size of
a chicken egg has been
f
found
d att S
South
th Af
Africa's
i '
Cullinan mine. The
diamond may be among
the world's top 20 high
high-quality gems. It was
di
discovered
d Thursday,
Th d
Sept.
S t
24, 2009 at the mine
northeast of Pretoria,
South Africa.

Diamond formation

Diamonds form in the mantle at

~120
120 tto 200 kkm d
depth
th and
d are
brought to the surface through
kimberlite pipes

Diamonds form in
kimberlite pipes

Diamond may be up to 3 billion years old, which is much older

than their surface host rock

Exploration for diamonds

Companies look for

clusters of kimberlite
pipes
At local scale look for
diamond indicator
minerals in order of
dec easing
decreasing
significance: garnet,
chromite, ilmenite,
clinopyroxene olivine
clinopyroxene,
olivine,
and zircon.
Diamonds found in
gravels

Most indicator minerals have a

distinctive color. Seen here are
red pyrope garnets, green
chromian clinopyroxene
clinopyroxene, black
ilmenite and chromite, and
yellowish-green olivine.

Diamond p
producers and
exploration
Value of diamond production since 1994

~87
87 million carats in 2008!!
See growth by Canada, Botswana and Russia

Diamonds from Canada

Diamond mines

The Jwaneng mine, in Botswana,

is the most valuable diamond
mine in the world. Its 1995
production of about 10.5 million
carats had a value of about $1.2
billion.

The Argyle mine, Australia is the

largest diamond mine in the
world However
world.
However, only 5% of the
production is gem quality. A
unique feature of the Argyle mine,
though, is a small but consistent
supply
l off valuable
l bl pink
i k to
t red
d or
purple diamonds.

Diamond types

The rough (uncut) diamond market consists of three very

different segments - 'gem', 'near
'near--gem' and 'industrial'.
Gem and nearnear-gem diamonds are used in jewelry and can
vary in color from pure blueblue-white,
white through pale yellow and
brown, to the rarest pink or blue diamonds.
Industrial diamonds, because of their inferior quality or
undesirable color, are used in industry for cutting, grinding,
polishing drilling and other technical and scientific
polishing,
applications.
Gem diamonds make up only 18 per cent of world production
by weight, but account for 66 per cent by value.
value.
Alluvial diamond deposits typically have a high gem content,
of 80 per cent or above.

Crater of Diamonds
State Park Arkansas

4.38 Ct found November 6, 2007

By Iowan Chad Johnson

Largest found is the Uncle Sam

40 2 ctt ((uncut)
40.2
t) and
d 12
12.4
4 ((cut)
t)
Only diamond park open to the public in the world!

Diamond marketing
g and
value

Approximately 75 per cent of the world's annual

production of rough diamonds is marketed through
the De BeersBeers-controlled Diamond Trading Company
(DTC)
For each handful of top quality Burma ruby,
Kashmir sapphire,
sapphire large gem red spinel,
spinel or top
quality tsavorite, a whole driveway could be
surfaced with fine quality diamonds.David
Marcum.
Marcum
It is all about marketingdiamonds are forever

Diamonds & imitations

Mineral

Hardness

Density

Diamond
d

10

3.52

Yttrium aluminum garnet

8.25
8 25

4.55
4 55

Cubic zirconia

5.75.7-5.9

Gadolinium--gallium garnet 6.5

Gadolinium
Imitations can be easily distinguished

7.02

How Can I Tell the Difference

Between Real and Imitation?

Jewelers have various tools that can be

used to accurately tell the difference
between a real diamond and an imitation
or synthetic diamond.
Another method for testing involves using
a white piece of paper and a marker. You'll
need to draw a black line across the paper,
and then place the diamond on the line.
Technically, if you are able to see the line
through the stone
stone, it isn't
isn t a real diamond.
diamond
Breath test!! Diamond has a higher
thermal conductivity of any known
substance, and moisture from ones breath
will evaporate from a diamond more
rapidly
apidl than from
f om any
an substitute.
s bstit te
Use an ultraviolet lamp. Glass fluoresces
blue (due to Pb), cubic zirconia fluoresces
golden yellow, whereas most diamonds do
not fluoresce ((some bluish))
To produce cubic zirconia, baddeleyite
(ZrO2 ) is heated to about 2300 degrees C
(almost 5,000 degrees F). This causes the
mineral to become isometric.

CZ

Cubic zirconia (CZ)

Synthetic
Diamond

Seeds

Fluoresecent diamonds

Hard to tell which ones will fluoresce;; due to presence

p
of inclusions

Color of diamonds Fluorescence

Color in diamonds arises from trace amounts

off nitrogen
it
((yellow)
ll ) and
db
boron (bl
(blue);
) diamonds
di
d
that fluoresce are generally worth less; Ds are
worth more than Zsfollow the 4Cs!!

Buying a diamond

The DeBeers Factor

Although the larger the diamond, the more it is per carat,
prices increase in stair steps
steps, not in a smooth curve.
curve The price
jumps up at the magic numbers. Which means that a 1.00
carat stone is a lot more per carat than a 0.95 carat stone.
(Chances are that the 1.00 carat stone is also not very well
cut since cutters are fudging things a bit to make that magic
number.)
The next step happens at 1.20 carats. To make the most of
you money, avoid buying a diamond in a popular size (the
round
d numbers,
b
basically).
b
ll ) Iff you want something
h
above
b
a
carat, you may as well go 1.15. You paid for the step up, you
may as well go as far as you can at that price level.

Beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18)

Emerald (traces of Cr green)

Aquamarine (traces of Fe
blue)
Heliodor (traces of Fe
yellow)
G ld beryl
Golden
b l (traces
(t
off F
Fe
yellow)
Morganite (traces of Mn
pink)
Bixbite (traces of Mn red)
Goshenite (colorless)

Golden beryl
y

Beryl

Hardness = 7.57.5-8
Density = 2.72.7-2.9
Refractive index =
1.56--1.60
1.56
Hexagonal crystal
system; usually means
elongate crystals
Latin smaragdus
g
means green stone
(emerald)
Birthstone for May

Emerald

Emerald occurs most often in mica

schists of metamorphicmetamorphichydrothermal origin wherein the
schists and other associated host
rocks formed by chemical
interaction between granitic rocks
or pegmatites and the enclosing
basic (silica(silica-deficient) rocks.
The chemical ingredients
necessary for the formation of
beryl frequently migrate from the
granitic material into the adjoining
basic rocks where the beryl
crystallizes.
Some of the world's
o ld's most famo
famouss
emerald deposits in Columbia
(Muzo) are of hydrothermal origin
where heated mineral bearing
waters or gases from deep igneous
sources later cooled and
crystallized along fractures in
carbonate rocks.

Emeralds

Because of emerald's relatively high

hardness and specific gravity, it is sometimes
found in elluvial and alluvial deposits.
Emerald is usually recognized by its color,
form, hardness and specific gravity.
Largest ever found 86,136 carat (40 lbs)
emerald found in Brazil in 1972!!

840 lbs
$400 M!?
Brazil

Emeralds

Asterism and cat's eye stones

are possible.
Chromium defines emerald,
whereas beryl colored with
vanadium is merely green
beryl.
The finest emerald are
transparent but more
commonly they are clouded
with
ith inclusions.
i l i
Dispersion is 0.014 and
emerald has distinct
pleochroism, showing bluebluegreen and y
g
yellowish-g
yellowishgreen.
It has no fluorescence but
emerald shows bright red
through the color or Chelsea
filter.
Emerald has a brittle tenacity
and therefore it is imperative
to never clean any beryl in an
ultrasonic bath or steam
cleaner!

Emerald (Cr impurities)

Green beryl (V impurities)

Enhancements,, synthetics
y
& imitations

Nearly all emeralds are

treated with oils or
epoxy resins to fillfill-in
surface cracks, making
the cracks less visible
and improving
transparency.
Some oils are clear,
some are tinted green
to make the gems
more vivid.

Mt
Mt St
St. Helens emerald
emerald

Obsidian produced
from the 1980 Mt. St.
Helens (glassy looking
l
lava)
) explosion
l i
contains chromium.
When cooked to over
2 700 degrees
2,700
deg ees F it
melts. Upon cooling it
will look like a dark
green emerald
emerald.
Watch itit is sold on
QVC!!!

$89

$
$30

Carolina Emerald (65 carats)

Uncut
Cut stone
Largest emerald ever found in the
U.S. (65 carats). It was found in a
Farmers field in North Carolina
Uncut

Inclusions in emeralds

Inclusions are numerous

in emerald. Excellent
images can be found at
gemtec.com and include
pyrite and albite crystals;
3-phase inclusions;
inclusions;
growth structures, spirals,
and fingerprints
fingerprints;; as well
as, quartz and calcite
inclusions.

Emerald pricing
Hooker emerald broach

Best green and clean stones

> 2cts are more valuable
than diamonds
Bluer and paler stones are
~ $50
$50--200+ ct. Best ones
>$10,000/ct!!
Accepted that emeralds
contain inclusions and can
be enhanced with oil and
fractures sealed with resins.
resins.
Be wary if the emerald is
inexpensive and is flawless
flawless,,
probably synthetic

Popular cuts for emerald

Aquamarine

Best ones are from

Brazil, Madagascar,
Afghanistan, and
P ki t
Pakistan
Found in pegmatites
$20--$
$20
$
$50/ct+ for p
paler
stones
$100s/ct for deep
blue
Birthstone for March
Heated to improve
color

Morganite

Best ones are from

Brazil, California, and
Madagascar
Found in pegmatites
$20--$50/ct+ for paler
$20
stones
$100s/ct for deep pink
stones
Named after J.P.
Morgan!!

Golden beryl & heliodor

Inexpensive $10s/ct
Found in granites and
pegmatites; Brazil,
Madagascar, Namibia
Sometimes called
heliodor
T
Traces
off F
Fe causes
yellow color
Largest faceted stone
is 2045 cts
(Smithsonian)

Goshenite

Colorless beryl
Does not respond
p
to heat treatment
Few dollars/ct
Found in Goshen,
Massachusetts, also
Colombia,
Colombia Pakistan
Has been used as a
diamond imitator

Bixbite

Red beryl
Found in Utah in
volcanic
l
i rocks
k
<2--3 carats usually in
<2
size and always
contains inclusions
Valued at $100s/ct
Can be synthetic;
~$7/ct
The rarest beryl