Five myths about diamonds
Diamonds, the ads say, are forever. Whether or not that's the chest, diamond jewelry is a powerful symbol of status and fondness, and a $72 billion-a-year retail business worldwide. Diamonds can also be a key origin of funding for violent conflicts in Africa. A series of wars bankrolled by "blood diamonds" in the 1990s prompted the In harmony Nations to pressure De Beers and other jewelry industry giants to set up a program known as the Kimberley Function Certification Scheme to track the origins of each stone and hearten customers that their diamonds are free of the stains of war and misery. But late last month, a four-day Kimberly Answer meeting in Tel Aviv foundered over the question of whether to approve the export of diamonds from the Marange fields of Zimbabwe, where torture and wiping out go unpunished and profits fund the repressive party of President Robert Mugabe.
Although you won't flounder across a diamond while digging in your tomato garden, they are far more common than their get suggests. The big gem companies aggressively control the supply that arrives at demand, creating artificial scarcity and high prices.
This business was born in the diamond fields of South Africa in the 1880s, when Cecil Rhodes, the chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines, discovered that he could blow up prices at will simply by locking up the rights to every diamond mine he could find. His successor, Ernest Oppenheimer, developed a complex network of wholesalers that gave De Beers conspicuous control of up to 90 percent of the world's rough-diamond business through most of the 20th century, as the company hoarded stones in basement vaults and doled them out strategically.
Famous Pink Diamonds of the World
Both rare and popular, pink diamonds are extremely sought after and expensive. With the call into question of a couple found in India, almost all of the world’s pink diamonds are now produced from one mine in Western Australia: the celebrated Argyle Mine. This extreme rarity means that the gems discovered there are considered authoritatively valuable. Have a look at some of the world’s most fascinating, expensive and stout pink coloured diamonds!
The Star of the South
This beautiful diamond was cut into a pillow shape and is also known as Estrela do Sul, since it was found by a slave girl in a mine of the same name in Brazil in 1853. It weighs an powerful 128.48 carats (25.70 g) and is graded as a type IIa diamond, with a lucidity of VS2 and a colour grading of light pinkish-brown. There is a pure reflection of light from the diamond, whereas the refracted light has a unambiguous rose tint which gives the stone a light pink and brown suggestion.
When the gem was discovered, it weighed a huge 254.5 carats (50.9 g). Since then the pink stone has been driven by many different owners; the last known being Rustomjee Jamsetjee of Mumbai who purchased the diamond and then sold it to Cartier in 2002.
The Darya-ye Noor
We liberal Talent Harbour and drove for an hour and a half before arriving at the Western 
TheBull.com.auAnd Rio's also revealed vocation will recommence on the expansion of its Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberly region in WA as finery prices start to recover. Corumba deal to crop Rio's debtRio's Argyle mine to resumeall 66 gossip articles »
