Call Beverly Hills Diamonds at: 1 (800) 453-8831 for all your diamond needs.

On your next trip to the local shopping mall, stop by one of the jewelry stores. Notice the diamond jewelry that takes up the majority of the showcase, and the number of people hovering over the counters trying to pick out a diamond for their loved one. There will surely be a salesperson explaining the “4 Cs” — cut, clarity, carat and color — to a young shopper, and explaining why one diamond is better than the one right next to it. Why all the fuss over diamonds?

Diamonds are just carbon in its most concentrated form. That’s it — carbon, the element that makes up 18 percent of the weight of your body. In many countries, including the United States and Japan, there is no other gemstone as cherished as the diamond, but in truth, diamonds are no more rare than many other precious gems. They continue to demand higher market prices because the majority of the diamond market is controlled by a single entity.

In this article, we will track a diamond from the time it is formed to when it reaches the Earth’s surface. We will also examine the artificial rarity created by the diamond cartel, De Beers, and briefly discuss the properties of these gems.

Carbon is one of the most common elements in the world, and is one of the four essentials for the existence of life. Humans are more than 18-percent carbon. The air we breathe contains traces of carbon. When occurring in nature, carbon exists in three basic forms:

Diamond - an extremely hard, clear crystal

Graphite - A soft, black mineral made of pure carbon. The molecular structure is not as compact as diamond’s, which makes it weaker than diamond.

Fullerite - A mineral made of perfectly spherical molecules consisting of exactly 60 carbon atoms. This allotrope was discovered in 1990.

Diamonds form about 100 miles (161 km) below the Earth’s surface, in the molten rock of the Earth’s mantle, which provides the right amounts of pressure and heat to transform carbon into a diamond. In order for a diamond to be created, carbon must be placed under at least 435,113 pounds per square inch (psi or 30 kilobars) of pressure at a temperature of at least 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 Celsius). If conditions drop below either of these two points, graphite will be created. At depths of 93 miles (150 km) or more, pressure builds to about 725,189 psi (50 kilobars) and heat can exceed 2,192 F (1,200 C).

Most diamonds that we see today were formed millions (if not billions) of years ago. Powerful magma eruptions brought the diamonds to the surface, creating kimberlite pipes.

Kimberlite is named after Kimberly, South Africa, where these pipes were first found. Most of these eruptions occurred between 1,100 million and 20 million years ago.

Kimberlite pipes are created as magma flows through deep fractures in the Earth. The magma inside the kimberlite pipes acts like an elevator, pushing the diamonds and other rocks and minerals through the mantle and crust in just a few hours. These eruptions were short, but many times more powerful than volcanic eruptions that happen today. The magma in these eruptions originated at depths three times deeper than the magma source for volcanoes like Mount St. Helens, according to the American Museum of Natural History.

The magma eventually cooled inside these kimberlite pipes, leaving behind conical veins of kimberlite rock that contain diamonds. Kimberlite is a bluish rock that diamond miners look for when seeking out new diamond deposits. The surface area of diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes ranges from 2 to 146 hectares (5 to 361 acres).

Diamonds may also be found in river beds, which are called alluvial diamond sites. These are diamonds that originate in kimberlite pipes, but get moved by geological activity. Glaciers and water can also move diamonds thousands of miles from their original location. Today, most diamonds are found in Australia, Borneo, Brazil, Russia and several African countries, including South Africa and Zaire.

Diamonds are found as rough stones and must be processed to create a sparkling gem that is ready for purchase.

As mentioned before, diamonds are the crystallized form of carbon created under extreme heat and pressure. It’s this same process that makes diamonds the hardest mineral we know of. A diamond ranks a 10 on the Mohs Hardness Scale (see below). It can be anywhere from 10 to hundreds of times harder than a mineral ranked nine on the Mohs scale, such as corundum. Corundum is a class of minerals that includes rubies and sapphires.

It is the molecular structure of diamonds that makes them so hard. Diamonds are made of carbon atoms linked together in a lattice structure. Each carbon atom shares electrons with four other carbon atoms, forming a tetrahedral unit. This tetrahedral bonding of five carbons forms an incredibly strong molecule. Graphite, another form of carbon, isn’t as strong as diamond because the carbon atoms in graphite link together in rings, where each atom is only linked to one other atom.

Cutting diamonds

There are special techniques that are used to cut and shape a diamond before it gets to the jewelry store. Diamond cutting creates the facets that you see in the diagram above. Diamond cutters use these four basic techniques:

1.Cleaving - In order to remove any impurities or irregularities in the diamond, a rough diamond is placed in quick-drying cement. A sharp groove is then carved into the diamond, using another diamond or a laser, along planes of weakness. Then, a steel blade is placed in the groove and a sharp blow to the blade splits the stone. It is then removed from the cement.

2.Sawing - Sometimes, diamonds have to be cut against a cleavage plane, which cannot be done with cleaving. Using a phosphor-bronze blade rotating at about 15,000 rpm, the saw slowly cuts through the diamond. Lasers are also being used to saw diamonds.

3.Bruting - The diamond is placed in a lathe, and another diamond in the lathe is rubbed against it to create the rough finish of the girdle, the outside rim of the diamond at the point of largest diameter.

4.Polishing - To give the diamond its finished look, it is placed onto the arm above a rotating polishing wheel. The wheel is coated with diamond powder that smoothes the diamond as it is pressed against the wheel.

Diamonds are judged on several factors that determine their beauty. Most diamonds never reach the consumer market because they are too flawed. Often, these diamonds are used for industrial purposes — as an abrasive, for drill bits or for cutting diamonds and other gems. If you’ve ever purchased a diamond, you’ve heard of the “4 Cs:”

Cut - This refers to how the diamond has been cut and its geometric proportions. When a diamond is cut, facets are created and the diamond’s finished shape is determined.

Clarity - This is the measurement of a diamond’s flaws, or inclusions that are seen in the diamond. Clarity levels begin with Flawless and move down to Very Very Slight (VVS), Very Slight (VS) and Slightly Included (SI).

Carat - This is the weight of a diamond. One carat is equal to about 200 milligrams.

Color - In referring to transparent diamonds, the color scale runs from D to Z, beginning with Icy White — the color of the most expensive diamonds — and ending with a light yellow.

Other unique qualities of the diamond include its transparency, luster and dispersion of light. A diamond that is created from 100-percent carbon will be completely transparent. Diamonds often contain other elements that can affect the color. Although we often think of diamonds as being clear, there are also blue, red, black, pale green, pink and violet diamonds. These colored diamonds are the truly rare ones.

Diamonds are made in the molten magma deep inside the Earth. Only nature can create diamonds, but it is people who have created the artificial rarity that has spurred demand for these gems. Carbon is one of the most common elements in the world, and diamonds are a form of carbon. Naturally occurring diamonds are no more rare than many other precious gems. The truly rare transparent diamonds are those rated as flawless, meaning that they don’t have the slightest imperfection.

Diamonds were not always so popular with the American public, and they were not always so pricey. A diamond placed in a mounting on a ring has a markup of about 100 percent to 200 percent. The only reason why we pay so much more for diamonds today than for other precious gems is because the diamond market is controlled almost entirely by a single diamond cartel, called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., which is based in South Africa.

De Beers stockpiles diamonds mined from countries around the world and releases a limited number of diamonds for sale each year. De Beers produces half of the world’s diamond’s supply and controls about two-thirds of the entire world market, according to a Washington Post report. At times, just to keep prices up, De Beers has bought tremendous numbers of diamonds from countries attempting to inject large quantities into the market. If De Beers were a U.S.-based company, it would be in violation of antitrust laws for fixing the prices of diamonds.

The secret to De Beers’ success is a marketing campaign that convinces women that they should receive a diamond ring from their fiancee and convinces young men to pay “two-months salary” for that ring to show how much their love is worth.

Call Beverly Hills Diamonds at: 1 (800) 453-8831 for all your diamond needs.