Where Do Diamonds Come From?

Formed deep within the earth’s crust, the diamonds, illustrious for their strength, durability and glowing beauty, are in fact billion years old by the time they reach the earth’s surface. Some might even be as old as trillion years, just a little young than the earth itself.

These sparkling stones are formed under incredible pressure and relatively manageable temperatures, underneath the continental crust of the earth. They originate from pure carbon obtained either exclusively from non-organic sources or organic sources, or a blend of both.
Earlier, India was the only supplier of diamonds in the world. But the commercial potential of these sources bushed in the late 18th century when the first non Indian diamonds were found in Brazil. Africa, in the 19th century, became the largest diamond producer with its industrial diamond share got from Zaire and the gem quality diamonds obtained from South Africa.

Today, most commercially viable diamond deposits are in Russia, Botswana, Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo with Australia being the largest diamond producer since the 80’s.
Once mined, diamonds are set on their journey to be cut and polished in pursuit of a beautifully glittering gem. This specialized skill of cutting rough diamonds and transforming them into dazzling stones takes place in few places of the world. Antwerp, Amsterdam, Johannesburg, New York and Tel Aviv are the traditional diamond cutting centers while China, India and Thailand are the recent addition to the list.

While in the rough form the establishment of the origin of a diamond can be done, but once cut, however, it is nearly impossible to distinguish its origin.

Make Diamond Purchase Easier

This article laconically presents to you all the tits-bits you need to know while you are on hunt for loose diamonds or diamond jewelry.

Before you begin the search understand what you are looking for. Do you plan to go in for a voguish design or is it the brilliance that attracts you? Does your budget restrain you?

Prioritize the character you would want your diamond to shackle within it. This can be done by the now famous 4Cs of diamonds- Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat.

1. Cut is the human contribution which adds to the beauty of the diamond. This aspect refers to the make and style of the diamond.
2. Clarity, as the name suggests refers to the absence of natural impurities. With reduction in clarity, the price decreases.
3. Color of diamonds, most commonly known, ranges from near colorless to light yellow. Diamonds are available in green, blue, pink, orange and the rarest of all red as well. The best quality diamonds are those with no or slight impurities.
3. Carat is the representation of the metric quantity of diamonds. It obviously affects the price. More the quantity (weight) more is the price.

Once the priority list is ready, you are all set to go for a pick. Check out for a reliable jewelry shop if you may or you can even do your purchase online. All you need to look for is Certification while making a purchase online.
So, what are you waiting for, hit the target.

Fancy Diamonds

Though most popular diamonds are the clear, colorless diamonds but diamonds are available in all the colors of the rainbow- blue, pink, green etc. In spite of more significance of these diamonds owing to their rare occurrence, our culture puts more emphasis on the perfect colorless diamonds.
Most colored diamonds found in the market are artificially colored by various laboratory techniques. This is done by adding the same element to it that naturally causes the desired color. Sometimes the defect that causes the color is induced. This is called Synthetic Coloring.
Naturally occurring colors of the diamonds are:

Black: They are valued despite being devoid of the fire that is normally viewed to be of prime importance. These diamonds are opaque.
Gray: The defect of this diamond causes it to absorb all wavelengths of light equally rendering the gray color. The Gray can tint almost every other shade.
White: The color of these diamonds is created by tiny inclusions so tiny that their exact cause is not known. These can be distinguished from the colorless diamonds in that they are not clear.
Brown: Due to the least desirability of gem quality brown, the brown diamond is often referred to by elaborate names. For example, Champagne is the code for lightly tinted brown diamond. The presence of these diamonds is in abundance.
Pink & Red: Fairly rare, these diamonds get their color from the irregularity of the growth of the crystal. Pinks often have a purplish tint in them.
Orange: The most infrequently occurring color of fancy diamonds is orange. This diamond often referred to as Apricot, has to have complete absence of brown to come under the category of orange diamonds.
Yellow: The slight yellow color of the diamond is almost always considered as a flaw masked by various settings. But the intense yellow can not be camouflaged by any setting and is much rarer. Shades of dark yellow are sometimes referred to as Canary.
Chameleons: These diamonds have a very atypical property which was discovered by accident. These diamonds, naturally green in color, change to yellow on being stored in darkness for more than 24 hours and back to green in a few minutes on being exposed to light.
Green: What makes this fancy diamond peculiar is that the green color may be patches or only at the surface.
Blue: There is nothing that is not known about the blue diamond. These are also very rare.
Violet: The violet diamond is the rarest of all. In fact there seems no actual purple shade in diamonds and no way to make a diamond purple.

The value of Fancy Diamonds depends on the hue and intensity of the diamond and also the cut and carat. The grading of these stones is determined by its hue. The grading scale of fancy diamonds given by GIA begins with “faint” followed by Very Light, Light, Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Dark, Fancy Intense, Fancy Deep and Fancy Vivid, Fancy vivid being the richest and the most valuable of all the others.