Is it true that gem quality diamond is a lot more abundant than what the mining giants want us to believe?
99998
Yes, diamonds are more abundant than we are lead to believe.  De Beers controls most of the diamond trade.\n\nI first saw this on the PBS TV show Nova a few years back:\nhttp://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv1-&p=nova%20de%20beers\n\nThe Yahoo Searches below lead to articles on the scarcity (or lack there of) and abundance of diamonds.
601338
Of course.  The diamond is the hardest substance, but definitly not the strongest.  If the diamond were on a suffieciently smooth and hard surface, the diamond would easily succumb to the pressure.\n\nIf diamonds are strong enough to hold up gross weight, how is it that we can cut them with simple hand tools the gem cutters use.  They are not.  Don't confuse hardness with strength.\n\nI think there is a story about a massive diamond found in the US that was smashed on an anvil because it was thought that it would resist the hammer if it were a true diamond.  It ended up being a diamond but was practically worthless compared to the original stone.
176002
There are very few known red diamonds.One fine example vanished a few years ago.It was a brilliant un-cut diamond found in a dig-sight in Akra (Bannu) in Pakistan.It changed hands a few times among locals before a European collector bought it & left.Perhaps it will turn up in an auction soon.
476863
A student from New Delhi showed me some Kashmirs he had purchased last year.  They were indeed Kashmirs (we checked the inclusions) but they were one of the worse cut stones I'd ever seen.  Plus they were badly zoned with (at best) a fair color grade.  \n\nMy point is, the finest Kashmirs (and I've seen some at the Christies auctions) are the most beautiful, vivid yet velvety blue sapphires on the face of this earth.  But your average Kashmir could be as average as a sapphire from any other locality.  \n\nI understand the buzz about origin (Golconda Diamonds/Kashmir Sapphires/Mogok Rubies etc), but we shouldn't judge gemstones by their "genetics".  I've seen fine Burmese sapphires that would have knocked the socks of Kashmir enthusiasts.  \n\nPrices for fine Kashmirs? It's a seller's market! That's the best (and worse) thing about fine quality colored gemstones.  They are so genuinely rare (as opposed to diamonds) they are worth whatever someone will pay for them!
1065634
That's about to change! The cost to manufacture synthetic diamonds is continually going down to the point now where the diamond mining companies are getting worried, especially since the "imitation" diamonds are more perfect than the real thing!\n\nBut we can't say the same thing about gold. Nobody knows how to make gold yet and it's currently over $600 an ounce and going higher.
652541
I've actually seen more than a square yard of gold before, so I can guarantee you that is not correct.  How much there is on earth can not be discovered for the simple reason that man has not found every gold deposit on the planets surface.  Keep in mind that 2/3-3/4 of the planet is under water and we don't mine for gold there either :)
14127
yes. worked down there and found a two karat  and got it for 500 dollars. the catch is it is considered blood diamonds. due to the way they get the diamonds. and cant get it insured.
413769
diamonds are just carbon atoms that are compressed so much that they become clear and shiny... theyre expensive because they are rare and very difficult to mine... they are often formed in places where there is a lot of heat and pressure such as deep down in earth... nobody knows where diamonds were first found cause they are so old that they date back to before there were and major written records
478447
I think it's Diamond...
379814
diamonds usually work
632185
You will never get full appraised value. You will get the most money for your diamond if you manage to sell it yourself or find a consignment jewelery store. The problem is diamonds are like new cars as soon as you walk out the door its value drops in half. I have a wedding set from my ex husband valued at $10,000 and nobody wants it because it is too expensive to resell as used. I have been told I will get more if I take it to a jeweler who will pay me for the diamonds as a loose gem and the give me the value of the platinum just by weight. It sucks but sometimes diamonds make better heirlooms than they do investments.
635804
There is not.  Unlike gold/silver, diamonds are very abundant.  Their price is manipulated and controlled by DeBears.  I would not invest in any type of instrument such as you are describing.\n\nDebears regularly adds/subtracts from the market for specific types of stones depending on what challengers are trying to do.  Ie if a country tries to sell diamonds outside of Debear's pricing mechanisms/controls.  You could easily get killed with such an instrument.
425123
They do indeed contain valuable minerals, some much more valuable than gold.  To set up any kind of large-scale mining operation would cost trillions of dollars using modern technologies, though.  So I don't think it would be worth the cost.  In 100 years, we may very well have off-world mining operations, depending on what technologies develop.
115410
An ore has minerals or metals suspended in a base, unwanted material that needs to be refined to make the pure mineral or metal usable.\n\nA gem is a crystaline material that has some intrinsic value.
1103318
Well is there Kimberlite in the mine? Is it ultramafic rocks formed at phenominal heat and pressure? No? Then you aren't going to find a diamond in that mine if you would have in the first place. There's a reason they're rare.\n\nAnd beeswax? Nothing. That's not going to help you unless you want to use it to stop up your ears to drown out the machinery noise. Actually that's a good plan. You don't want to loose your hearing.
1122546
No, for two reasons.\n\nFirst, the centre of the Earth is under two much pressure and too hot.\n\nSecond, diamonds are made of carbon, which doesn't exist in the centre of the earth. The centre of the earth is solid nickel and iron.
794460
Diamonds are not forever\n\nPhysicists in Germany have created a material that is harder than diamond. Natalia Dubrovinskaia and colleagues at the University of Bayreuth made the new material by subjecting carbon-60 molecules to immense pressures. The new form of carbon, which is known as aggregated diamond nanorods, is expected to have many industrial applications (App. Phys. Lett. 87 083106).\n\nThe hardness of a material is measured by its isothermal bulk modulus. Aggregated diamond nanorods have a modulus of 491 gigapascals (GPa), compared with 442 GPa for conventional diamond. Dubrovinskaia and two of her co-workers - Leonid Dubrovinky and Falko Langenhorst - have patented the process used to make the new material.\n\nDiamond derives its hardness from the fact that each carbon atom is connected to four other atoms by strong covalent bonds. The new material is different in that it is made of tiny interlocking diamond rods. Each rod is a crystal that has a diameter of between 5 and 20 nanometres and a length of about 1 micron.