Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Exceptional Rarity....

Rare colored diamonds are the world's rarest diamonds and parallel in rarity with the world's most obscure and nebulous gemstones. Finding a large colored diamond is as easy as the old express "finding a needle in a haystack". With only 1 in every 10,000 diamond carats being colored, finding a large colored diamond is almost unheard of.

Consider the journey a colored diamond takes before it reaches the jeweler and the remarkable conditions under which it forms. Diamonds are formed approximately 150-200km below the earth's surface and are carried to the surface inside kimberlite stones in volcanic eruptions. All natural diamonds are over a billion years old and most of these volcanic eruptions occurred more than million years ago. In order to detract the diamond from the ore, the ore is crushed with care taken not to destroy large diamonds. Only a very small fraction of the diamond ore consists of actual diamonds. Approximately 20 % of colorless diamond carats are gem quality. Of that percentage 1 out of every 10,000 carat is naturally colored.

Colorless diamonds are made of 100% carbon. For a diamond to be naturally colored it must come in contact with another mineral which reacts to the carbon producing a colored hue in the diamond-this process is extremely rare.

Clarity is a large factor contributing to the rarity of a colored diamond. Almost all diamonds contain tiny, inconspicuous marks called inclusions. If the inclusion is not visible to the naked eye the clarity of the diamond improves the rarity and price.

The rarity of a colored diamond is affected by its size. A 1.00 carat colored diamond, although twice the size of a .05 diamond, is worth more than twice its value. This is because a 1.00 carat is statistically more difficult to mine than a diamond half its size. A large diamond (over 5 carats), because of the sensitivity required to ensure it is not damaged in the mining process, is much scarcer than a 1.00 carat. For this reason large colored diamonds are exceeding rare and valuable.

Red diamonds are one of the rarest colored diamonds. Currently it is believe that there are thirty-five flawless red diamonds known and most weigh under a carat. The largest is the Moussaieff Red at 5.11 carats found by a Brazilian farmer. *

The Steinmetz pink is internally flawless and the largest vivid pink diamond known weighing 59.60 carats. Because of its significance, experts from The Steinmetz Group took 20 months to cut it.*

After billions of years of formation which includes a fluke infusion of a foreign mineral, colored diamonds are propelled from under the the earth's surface in a volcanic erosion and then survive the crushing process of being procured from the ore. The percentage of colored diamonds that emerge from the entire process as flawless and weighing more than 1-2 carats is minimal. It is no wonder that these priceless diamonds are highly sought after by investors and Hollywood celebrities looking to invest in the most elite and exquisite diamonds in the world.

* Information taken from the Smithsonian Museum website.

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Exceptional Rarity....
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Tuesday, September 30, 2008