In the Madhya Pradesh region of central India, 4,700 villagers now have access to clean drinking water thanks to the initiatives of diamond producer Rio Tinto.
In the Siberian town of Mirny, 2,000 youngsters take part in more than a dozen sporting activities offered at the state-of-the-art Cultural and Sports Complex built and funded by the diamond mining company ALROSA.
And in Africa, the Diamond Empowerment Fund is providing promising youth with access to higher education.
These are just a few stories featured on the new "Diamonds Do Good" website, which focuses on the positive impact the diamond industry is making on communities around the world. In addition to the website and its related social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, the "Diamonds Do Good" messaging will include three 60-second Public Service Announcements (PSAs).
The aim of the "Diamonds Do Good" initiative is to inspire consumers with the great stories behind diamonds. These powerful, positive video vignettes are being targeted at more than eight million Millennials (people born between 1982 and 2004). Videos will rotate on the highly trafficked websites of Vogue, The New York Times, InStyle, Elle, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar and others.
Since it was founded in 2007 by business entrepreneur Russell Simmons and leaders in the diamond and jewelry industries, the nonprofit Diamond Empowerment Fund (D.E.F.) has had one mission: to help diamond communities become strong, stable, prosperous, and socially empowered.
Through the generosity and dedication of the diamond industry and its affiliates, Simmons' vision has become a reality. ALROSA, for example, reportedly allocates 5% of its revenue towards social programs, and puts social policy at the core of its mission.
On Sunday, Canadian rap star Drake gave his 25 million Instagram followers a sneak peek at what he claims are solid gold Air Jordans.
Designed and fabricated by mixed-media artist Matthew Senna, the shoes represent a gilded replica of the Air Jordan 10s that Drake's record label — OVO — created in collaboration with Nike.
On Instagram, Drake (a.k.a. Champagne Papi) divulged that the shoes weighed 100 pounds. If that number is accurate and the shoes are made of 24-karat gold, the precious metal value alone would be more than $2 million.
Senna kicked up some controversy when he took to Instagram to show off the golden sneakers. If the pair did, indeed, weigh 100 pounds, how could he effortlessly grip a 50-pound shoe with only a few fingers? An explanation could be that Senna's pair are a gold-plated prototype.
Nevertheless, the golden Air Jordans — whether they be solid gold or gold plated — will be joining Drake's growing collection of bling. Followers of this blog may remember that back in October 2015, the Toronto native and fellow rapper Future celebrated their chart-topping collaborative mixtape, What a Time to Be Alive, with matching diamond-encrusted “World Champions” pinky rings.
Reminiscent of a Super Bowl ring, the designs by Avianne feature the words “World Champions” engraved in black enamel against a polished white metal background. Drake’s version of the ring displayed an owl emblem and the initials OVO, which stand for "October's Very Own."
On Drake's Instagram page, the music artist may have stated the obvious when he posted an image of the golden Air Jordans with the hashtag "TheseAreNotToWear." The rapper would be hard pressed to achieve any locomotion while donning 100-pound shoes.
Drake has been a brand ambassador for Nike since 2013.
Credits: Images via Instagram/msenna, Instagram/champagnepapi.
Last year, The Perth Mint captivated the imaginations of coin and gemstone lovers alike when it released the "Kimberley Sunset," a 2-ounce pink gold coin punctuated by a petite .04-carat pink diamond. Last week, the Mint took the concept to new heights by unveiling "The Kimberley Treasure," a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) yellow gold coin embellished by an ultra-rare .54-carat red diamond sourced in Western Australia.
The price tag for the one-of-a-kind collectible is AUD$1 million ($758,000). It's the most valuable coin ever released by The Perth Mint.
With its precious metal content valued at just under $50,000, the coin's premium price is based primarily on its exclusivity and the fact that natural red diamonds are the rarest of all fancy-colored diamonds. The diamond set in the "The Kimberley Treasure" was unearthed at Rio Tinto’s Argyle Diamond Mine in the east Kimberley region — one of the few mines in the world that produces red diamonds. Rio Tinto reports that its average annual output of red diamonds is barely 1 carat.
Fancy red diamonds are so rare that the world's supply of gem-quality specimens could easily fit in the palm of one's hand. In fact, many gemologist have never touched a red diamond. At auction, the elusive fancy red diamond can easily fetch $1 million per carat.
Emphasizing the coin's Aussie origin is a depiction of a kangaroo, hopping across the coin from right to left. Grasped between its rendered paws is a genuine radiant-cut red diamond (although The Perth Mint's illustration seems to show a round gemstone). Around the top rim is the phrase "AUSTRALIAN KANGAROO." The year 2016, the weight of 1 kilo and the metal purity of 9999 GOLD are written along the bottom rim.
On the reverse, an Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is encircled by the denomination value of 5,000 DOLLARS (Australian), as well as her name and the word "AUSTRALIA" spelled in capital letters.
While last year's 22-karat pink gold Kimberley Sunset had a denominational value of 500 Aussie dollars and a purchase price of AUD$6,000, this year's Kimberley Treasure boasts a denomination value of 5,000 Aussie dollars and a selling price of AUD$1 million. The Sunset had been released in a limited mintage of 500. The Mint will produced only one Kimberley Treasure.
“We are delighted to collaborate with The Perth Mint on the exclusive release of this distinctive investment piece," said Simon Trott, managing director of Rio Tinto Diamonds. "It is a beautiful symbol of the unique treasures of Western Australia and sets a new benchmark in limited-edition craftsmanship.”
It is believed that red diamonds get their rich color from a molecular structure distortion that occurs as the jewel forms in the earth’s crust. By contrast, other colored diamonds get their color from trace elements in their chemical composition, such as boron (yielding a blue diamond) or nitrogen (yielding a yellow one).
Credits: Photos courtesy of Rio Tinto and The Perth Mint.
Singapore's Cé La Vi restaurant and Russia's World of Diamonds have teamed up to offer the ultimate dining experience. The $2 million dinner for two commences with a romantic helicopter ride over the cosmopolitan city and ends eight hours later — at midnight — with the presentation of The Jane Seymour Vivid Blue diamond ring.
One lucky couple will enjoy an exhilarating 45-minute airborne tour, followed by a private luxury cruise. When the couple returns to dry land, they will be whisked away in a chauffeured Rolls-Royce and transported to Cé La Vi, on the rooftop of Marina Bay Sands hotel, where they will be showered with 10,000 roses.
Their 18-course meal will include some of the finest delicacies the world has to offer. The menu includes Almas caviar, lamb sweetbreads, slow-cooked pigeon, fresh Belon oysters with champagne foam, New Zealand langoustine, air-flown Alaska wild salmon and grilled Mishima sirloin paired with 44- and 55-year-old vintage wines.
The couple will be trading in their traditional silverware for diamond-encrusted chopsticks, each of which will be engraved with the diners' names and the date of the epic dinner.
Throughout the evening, the couple will be entertained by a live band.
But the most exciting part of the dining experience will take place at the strike of midnight, when the Seymour Vivid Blue diamond ring will be presented to the couple. At that moment, a fireworks display will light up Singapore's evening sky and a bottle of Louis XIII de Rémy Martin cognac will be served.
The 2.08-carat fancy vivid blue cushion-cut diamond is set in a rose gold-and-platinum, Seymour-inspired geranium floral design. World of Diamonds valued the ring at $2 million. The 65-year-old British actress is best known for her performances in East of Eden, War and Remembrance, Somewhere in Time and the James Bond thriller Live and Let Die.
Fancy vivid blue diamonds have been in the headlines this season, most spectacularly when the Oppenheimer Blue, a 14.62-carat stunner, sold for $57.5 million at Christie's Geneva in May.
“As a diamond mining group, we recognize that Cé La Vi is a diamond in the sky," Karan Tilani, director of World of Diamonds Group, told Forbes.com contributor Roberta Naas. "[We expect] the response will be beyond overwhelming, but it’s only two diners who will eventually have the privilege.”
Executives from both the restaurant and diamond group will cherry-pick the couple that will eventually enjoy the most lavish dining experience in the world. Naas reported that the companies will be looking closely at the candidates' status as influencers, their affinity for blue diamonds and how they plan to flaunt or display The Jane Seymour Vivid Blue.
The companies are reportedly fielding requests from interested parties just ahead of a press preview that will take place next month.
Credits: Restaurant shots courtesy of Cé La Vi; Jewelry and Jane Seymour shots courtesy of World of Diamonds.
Welcome to Music Friday when we highlight chart-topping songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Aussie sensation Sia teams up with Jamaican rapper Sean Paul to deliver one of the world's hottest dance tunes, "Cheap Thrills." Currently #5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, the song features Paul's reggae-spiced refrain, "You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold."
The song follows Sia as she preps for an exciting weekend with her partner at the dance club. She states that she doesn't need dollars bills to have fun tonight, because feeling the music and dancing the night away is worth so much more.
Sia and Paul alternate lines as they sing, "But I don't need no money / (You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold) / As long as I can feel the beat."
Penned by Sia and Greg Kurstin, "Cheap Thrills" has been described by critics as a "bouncy party anthem" and "another superior slab of on-trend ear candy."
"Cheap Thrills" has become a viral sensation on YouTube. The lyric video, which mimics the 1960s vibe of American Bandstand and features faceless dancers wearing signature Sia wigs, has been viewed more than 362 million times. A second video highlighting Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler has accumulated 120 million views. The 13-year-old dancer also appeared in Sia's videos for "Chandelier," "Elastic Heart" and "Big Girls Cry."
Sia fans may remember that she wrote "Diamonds" for Rihanna in 2012. That song became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with more than 7.5 million copies sold worldwide.
Interestingly, "Cheap Thrills" was also intended for Rihanna, but the artist passed on it. As reported in Rolling Stone, Rihanna's manager was looking for another "Diamonds," a song with soul and feeling. After Sia and Kurstin wrote "Cheap Thrills," Sia sensed that the song may not be a perfect match for Rihanna.
"I realized just as soon as I was cutting it that it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for her," she told Rolling Stone. "We did actually send it to her, but they passed on it, and then I just couldn't stop listening to it in the car."
Sia decided to add the song to her seventh studio album, This Is Acting. The rest is hit-making history. The song was released in February and is still migrating its way up the Billboard charts.
Please check out the excellent "Cheap Thrills" video at the end of this post. The lyrics are included if you'd like to sing along with Sia and Sean Paul...
"Cheap Thrills" Written by Greg Kurstin and Sia Furler. Performed by Sia, featuring Sean Paul.
Up with it girl Rock with it girl Show dem it girl (Bada bang bang) Bounce with it girl Dance with it girl Get with it girl (Bada bang bang)
Come on, come on, turn the radio on It's Friday night and I won't be long Gotta do my hair, I put my make up on It's Friday night and I won't be long
Til I hit the dance floor (Bada bang) Hit the dance floor (Bada bang) I got all I need (Sia) No I ain't got cash No I ain't got cash But I got you baby (Just you and me)
Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) But I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I can feel the beat Mek di beat jus tek control I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I keep dancing Free up yourself, get outa control
Come on, come on, turn the radio on It's Saturday and I won't be long Gotta paint my nails, put my high heels on It's Saturday and I won't be long
Til I hit the dance floor (Bada bang) Hit the dance floor (Bada bang) I got all I need (Sia) No I ain't got cash No I ain't got cash But I got you baby (Just you and me)
Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) But I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I can feel the beat Mek di beat jus tek control I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I keep dancing Free up yourself, get outa control
Me and you girl, you and me Drop it to di floor an mek mi see your energy because Mi nah play na hide an seek Wah fi see di ting you have weg mek me feel weak girl Cause anytime you wine and kotch it Di selector pull it up an pull it pon repeat girl I'm nah touch a dollar in my pocket Cause nuttin in this world ain't more dan what you worth
But I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I can feel the beat Mek di beat jus tek control I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I keep dancing Free up yourself, get outa control Oh, oh
Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) But I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I can feel the beat Mek di beat jus tek control I don't need no money You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold As long as I keep dancing Free up yourself, get outa control
La, la, la, la, la, la (I love cheap thrills) La, la, la, la, la, la (I love cheap thrills) La, la, la, la, la, la (I love cheap thrills) La, la, la, la, la (I love cheap thrills)
With the Olympic Games kicking off in Rio de Janeiro in 22 days, we ask you to ponder what seems to be a very silly and simple question: Are the Rio Olympic gold medals really made of gold?
Well, the answer is "yes" and "no."
Have you ever wondered how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) could afford to give away pure gold medals? With the Rio medals weighing 500 grams, each would cost $23,668 in precious metal alone. The IOC will be awarding 812 gold medals during the Olympic games, so 24-karat gold medals at 500 grams would generate a tab of more than $19.2 million.
Yes, there was a time when Olympic gold medals were made of solid gold, but the last ones were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, way back in 1912.
Starting in 1916, the IOC mandated that gold medals be made mostly of silver, with a 24-karat gilding of exactly 6 grams (.211 ounces). The IOC also required the medals to be at least 60mm in diameter and 3mm thick.
Interestingly, since the density of gold is nearly twice that of silver, if the committee attempted to mint a 60mm wide, 3mm thick coin in pure gold, it would weigh about 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds) and be worth about $47,000 in precious metal.
Since the Rio medals are composed of 494 grams of 96% pure silver and 6 grams of 99.9% pure gold, the total precious metal value is about $284 in gold and $339 in silver — for a grand total of $623. The IOC will spend $505,000 on gold medals this year.
Rio's silver medals are made of 500 grams of 96% pure silver and have no gilding at all. The precious metal value is about $344.
Bronze medals contain mostly copper with a bit of zinc and tin. The composition is similar to that of a penny. The medal contains no precious metal and has a value of less than $5.
The medal's design features laurel leaves – a symbol of victory in ancient Greece – surrounding the Rio 2016 Olympic logo. According to Olympic Games tradition, the other side of the medal regularly features an image of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, with the Panathinaiko Stadium and the Acropolis in the background.
For the first time, the medals are slightly thicker at their central point compared with their edges. The name of the event for which the medal was won is engraved by laser along the outside edge.
The medals of Rio have been made with sustainability at their heart. Athletes who get to stand on the highest podium after their respective competitions will receive medals made from gold that has been produced according to strict sustainability criteria, from the initial mining all the way through to the design of the end product.
The silver and bronze medals have been fabricated using 30% recycled materials. Half of the plastic in the ribbons — used to hang the medals around athletes’ necks — comes from recycled plastic bottles. The rounded cases that hold the medals are made from freijó wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Rio 2016 published this short video showing how medals from both the Olympic Games (Aug. 5-21) and Paralympic Games (Sept. 7-18) are made...
Credits: Rio medal images courtesy Rio 2016/Alex Ferro.
The 2016 American Eagle one-ounce platinum proof coin earned rock-star status recently when the U.S. Mint exhausted its entire mintage of 10,000 pieces within 56 minutes of the coins going on sale.
On the Mint's website, the coins were priced at $1,350 and purchases were limited to one per household. Despite that limitation, the website processed orders at a rate of three per second until it was forced to take down the offer and replace it with the status of “Currently Unavailable.”
While these statistics surely impressed coin enthusiasts, it may be a good time to compare the American's Eagle's performance against some of the all-time quickest selling items...
• Back in 1964, The Beatles' release of "Can't Buy Me Love" generated sales of 940,225 during the first 24 hours. That's equivalent to a tad fewer than 11 singles per second. • In 2012, pre-orders for the iPhone 5 exceeded two million in 24 hours, or about 23 per second. • In 2013, the video game Grand Theft Auto V sold 12 million units in its first day, or the equivalent of 139 per second. • And in 2015, the Korean boy band EXO sold out the 15,000-seat Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul in 1.47 seconds. That's more than 10,000 transactions per second.
Coin enthusiasts clamored for the 2016 American Eagle based on its beauty, collectibility and investment value. The spot price for an ounce of platinum on the day of the Mint's offering was $1,320, so the premium to obtain a limited-edition proof was only $30.
Soon after the coins were sold out, the same 2016 American Eagle .9995 platinum coins emerged on eBay for upwards of $1,895, a 40% premium over the issue price.
The obverse features John Mercanti’s modern interpretation of Liberty, first introduced on Platinum Eagles in 1997. Inscribed in the field and along the rim are the words LIBERTY, E PLURIBUS UNUM, IN GOD WE TRUST and the year 2016.
Designed by Paul C. Balan and sculpted by Joseph Menna, the reverse depicts Liberty holding a torch of enlightenment and an olive branch of peace. On the olive branch are 13 olives, one for each of the original colonies of the United States. A bald eagle in flight appears beside Liberty. Inscribed in the field and along the rim are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, .9995 PLATINUM, 1 OZ., $100, and the West Point Mint’s “W” mark.
This past December, the 2015 version of the American Eagle platinum proof coin was offered in a very limited mintage of 3,881 pieces, which sold out within 10 minutes of its release. That coin carried at price tag of $1,200 and no household ordering limit. For the record, it sold at a rate of 6.5 coins per second.
The 2016 coin is packaged in a presentation case, allowing both 2015 and 2016 coins to be displayed together.
Credits: Coin images courtesy of U.S. Mint. Boy band EXO by Louis Kim (SMTown Live World Tour IV in Seoul) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
For years we've been writing about the incompatible relationship between engagement rings and large bodies of water. Despite the inherent risks of dropping the precious keepsakes in the drink, a cavalcade of can't-take-a-hint suitors keep making the same mistakes.
Which brings us to today's story of Virginian Jesse Puryear, whose brilliant idea was to propose to his girlfriend, Alexandra Love, while careening on a raft down the white-capped Class IV rapids of Chattanooga's Ocoee River.
Puryear was aware that his well-intentioned proposal could go terribly wrong. In fact, he was extra careful to tether the engagement ring to his life vest.
On July 2, in the midst of one of the most challenging sections of the river, the dapper young man went down on one knee and popped the question to his girlfriend with a halo-style engagement ring. In the boat were members of the future-bride's family.
"I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and wanted to do it in front of your family," said Puryear, according to TheKnotNews.com. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"
As he attempted the place the ring on Love's right hand (oops!), the raft encountered a violent wave and a torrent drenched the lovebirds and the boat-mounted video camera.
Still smiling, Puryear collected himself and continued with what promised to be one of the most momentous events of his life, but that euphoria was short-circuited when he saw nothing dangling from the leash on his vest. The ring is gone.
His distraught girlfriend could do nothing more than continue to hold on tight as Puryear squatted down to dig for the ring at the bottom of the raft. Incidentally, the boat is designed with drainage holes in the floor, according to Puryear.
A near catastrophe turned to triumph when, within a few seconds, Puryear located the ring and raised it to the sky. Love and the rest of her family let out a collective cheer, as their raft guide, who is incidentally Love's brother, Josh, maneuvered them all into calmer waters.
“[It was] barely holding on to the lip of a hole in the bottom of the raft," Puryear told TheKnotNews.com. "I pulled it up for a split second to double check and just raised it up in the air as high as I could. I was at a loss for words, just sheer joy.”
Instead of hitting the reset button and attempting the proposal again, Puryear handed the ring to the captain for safekeeping. The proposal would have to wait until they got onto dry land.
Puryear, who posted his experience to YouTube and Facebook, captioned his video, "How I almost messed up one of the most important days of my life."
Lesson learned.
Credits: Screen captures via YouTube; Couple via Facebook/Alexandra Love.
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring great new songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today's installment features Demi Lovato performing "Stone Cold," her rousing 2015 ballad about the pain of watching an ex-boyfriend moving on to a new relationship.
"This song hurts so unbelievably bad. And when I perform it on a TV show, in rehearsals or even in a bathtub, it completely takes me to a different place," Lovato told her 42 million Instagram followers.
Lovato seems to channel English superstar Adele as she sings, "Stone cold, stone cold / I was your amber, but now she's your shade of gold."
She noted that the process of writing and recording "Stone Cold" was therapeutic. For her, the song became a source of healing and catharsis. The 23-year-old believes "Stone Cold" is a song people can listen to when they're going through a breakup, or they're thinking about a time when they were heartbroken.
"It's gonna give them that voice that they need to hear in order to get past things and process how they feel," she told Radio.com.
Lovato called “Stone Cold” her favorite song off her Confident album. She also believed her rendition of the song was worthy of a Grammy nomination.
She told Complex, “I want the Grammy committee to hear [that song] so that one day they can see that I know that I’m capable of getting there. You can’t go higher than the Grammys in the music industry. That was a huge goal for this album. I watched the Grammy nominations last year and I was like, 'I want to be there so bad.'"
Born in Dallas in 1992, Demetria Devonne Lovato got her first break at the age of 7 as a cast member of Barney and Friends. Trivia alert: Acting alongside Lovato on the TV show was her best friend, Selena Gomez. In 2008, Lovato starred in the Disney Channel television film Camp Rock and, shortly thereafter, signed a recording contract with Hollywood Records.
Please check out the video of Lovato performing "Stone Cold" at the Billboard Women in Music event in New York City in 2015. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...
"Stone Cold" Written by Demi Lovato and Laleh Pourkarim. Performed by Demi Lovato.
Stone cold, stone cold You see me standing, but I'm dying on the floor Stone cold, stone cold Maybe if I don't cry, I won't feel anymore
Stone cold, baby God knows I tried to feel Happy for you Know that I am, even if I Can't understand, I'll take the pain Give me the truth, me and my heart We'll make it through If happy is her, I'm happy for you
Stone cold, stone cold You're dancing with her, while I'm staring at my phone Stone cold, stone cold I was your amber, but now she's your shade of gold
Stone cold, baby God knows I tried to feel Happy for you Know that I am, even if I Can't understand, I'll take the pain Give me the truth, me and my heart We'll make it through If happy is her, I'm happy for you
Executives from two of the world's top-producing diamond mines revealed to Bloomberg.com how new scanning technology is helping to preserve the largest diamonds during the often-damaging extraction process.
Throughout history, diamond-bearing rock was typically drilled, blasted, hauled and put through crushing machines to get to the gems that may be hiding within. During that process, extremely large diamonds, some weighing hundreds of carats, were often damaged or even pulverized.
In fact, the highly publicized 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond was determined to be part of a much larger stone. Lucara CEO William Lamb told Bloomberg.com that it was actually fortunate that a 374-carat chunk broke off the larger stone because Lucara's plant was not designed to process such large material. A 1,500-carat diamond would have been crushed.
“When people say you broke a 1,500-carat diamond, I say we recovered an 1,100-carat diamond,” Lucara CEO William Lamb told Bloomberg.com. “The words ‘mining’ and ‘gentle’ don’t go very well together.”
With the advent of XRT scanners, the mining process is becoming a bit kinder and gentler. As the rock-like material comes down a conveyor belt, the scanners can pick out the diamonds based on their chemical composition. Older scanners used to depend strictly on the stone's ability to reflect light.
The diamond-rich material is then separated from the rubble and moved to a secure area for processing, according to Bloomberg.com.
In the small kingdom of Lesotho, the Letšeng mine produces just 1.6 carats of diamonds for every 100 tons of rock. But despite that tiny output, the mine boasts an average per-carat value of $2,299, the highest in the industry. That's because Letšeng is one of two diamond mines famous for generating the largest and finest-quality diamonds in the world.
The other is the Karowe mine in Botswana, which is the source of Lesedi La Rona, the second-largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. The gem failed to sell at auction last week when bidding stalled at $61 million. Still, that number was equivalent to $55,000 per carat.
Together, the Karowe and Letšeng mines lay claim to 15 of the 20 largest white diamonds discovered over the past decade, and just about all of them had been part of a larger stone.
“Since the time of the caveman mining hasn’t changed much," Clifford Elphick, chief executive officer of Gem Diamonds Ltd., told Bloomberg.com. "You pulverize the rock and take out what you want. That’s fine in the metals business, but in the diamond business it’s not an appealing technique.”
“We’ve made important inroads, but we certainly haven’t solved the problem because we’re still using the same basic technology,” said Elphick. “What will solve this is a massive technical breakthrough. That is the holy grail for us.”
Gem Diamonds is currently working on a strategy that places XRT scanners earlier in the mining process so the largest diamonds can be identified before the crushing phase.
“We suspect there is the odd 1,000-carat diamond contained within the ore body,” said Gem Diamonds' former COO Alan Ashworth. “But you never know when the diamond is going to be liberated.”
Credits: Image of Lesedi La Rona courtesy of Lucara Diamond Corp. All others courtesy of Gem Diamonds Ltd.
