When was the first diamond found in the world?

Did you know that diamonds were first discovered in India about 2400 years ago? The stone, which many consider absolutely irresistible, is actually billions of years old. And in a modern world where many question the true value of diamonds, understanding the history of diamond mining and its future is critical.

What are diamonds?

The term “diamond” itself comes from the ancient Greek word “Adamas”, which means “invincible”. And indeed, there are no minerals in the world that surpass it in strength. However, this beautiful stone has deeper symbolism – love, romance, longevity. Diamond, from a chemical point of view, is simply a special crystalline form of carbon. However, the strength of the material is so high that it is the determining factor on the Mohs hardness scale. Simply put, diamond is the hardest substance on Earth. In its pure form, diamond is transparent and colorless. And the first stones, discovered in India 2400 years ago, were just as attractive and shiny as modern ones.

Where were diamonds discovered and mined?

Diamonds were first discovered in India. However, their deposit was relatively small – the sources were quickly exhausted. In the early 1700s, some more diamonds were found in Brazil. But, similarly, their deposit was quickly exhausted, as a result of which the miners were forced to go in search of other sources. In 1866, while exploring the banks of the Orange River in South Africa, 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs discovered a huge diamond, which he initially mistook for an ordinary pebble. But after the find was appreciated, excavations began in this area. And prospectors discovered a large deposit of new diamonds. The deposit attracted more and more prospectors – and soon large-scale excavations began in the Orange River basin. The miners discovered a large spring, which soon became known as the Kimberley Mine. This deposit significantly increased the world supply of diamonds, but led to a drop in their prices. By the way, today this mine has a not very euphonious name – the “Big Hole” kimberlite pipe – and is completely exhausted. By the end of the 19th century, diamonds were no longer considered a rarity and were even inferior in value to rubies, emeralds and sapphires. To control the production and supply of diamonds, Cecil Rhodes founded De Beers Consolidated Mines, but this did little to increase the price. Only after a lengthy advertising campaign did the market recover. By the beginning of the 20th century, diamonds had once again become the most expensive gemstones in the world, and demand for them was at an all-time high. Today, about 50% of diamonds are mined in South and Central Africa. The remainder comes from kimberlite pipes in India, Canada, Australia, Russia and Brazil. Diamonds can also be found in the USA – in Colorado, Arkansas, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Prospection

In recent decades, the diamond mining industry has worked to develop sustainable and ethical mining practices. Thus, in 2005, the United Nations created the Council for the Responsible Manufacturing of Jewelry. This was the first step towards complying with ethical norms and business standards in the diamond mining industry. For example, this Council developed a set of regulations known as the Kimberlite Process. The Kimberlite Process was created to encourage ethical diamond mining. Many companies are now looking to implement environmentally friendly processes that will help ensure the safety and sustainability of diamond mining in the future. Kimberlite process standards are followed by both small and large enterprises. The business is being rejuvenated to create beautiful stones that can be safely purchased around the world.

We work with responsible diamond suppliers

At Goldsmith we pride ourselves on offering 100% natural, ethically sourced diamonds. We purchase them from cutting plants that work directly with mining companies and that follow the Kimberlite Process. Therefore, we are confident that our jewelry contains only the highest quality stones, sourced in an environmentally friendly and ethical manner. So when you buy diamond jewelry from Goldsmith, you’re not only getting a piece that’s breathtakingly beautiful. You can rest assured that you are also supporting a legal industry that has been around for centuries. An international team of scientists has determined that a small diamond found in rocks of the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe in Yakutia is the world’s oldest diamond ever known to scientists. “The diamond we discovered is apparently the oldest of those studied to date; the age of the syngenetic (formed simultaneously – IF) sulfide inclusion in this diamond is estimated at approximately 3,6 billion years,” the publication of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Science in Siberia” quotes ”scientific director of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Pokhilenko. The age of the diamond was determined by isotope dating. According to the study, a 0,3 mm diamond “captured” a growing mineral – olivine – at temperatures of more than 1400 degrees Celsius and pressures of more than 5,5 GPa. “This corresponds to depths of about 180 km and the beginning of the stage of entry of the lower boundary of the lithospheric mantle of ancient platforms into the depths of the diamond stability region,” the specialist noted. Pokhilenko compared the very process of diamond capture by a growing mineral to the growth of ice on a reservoir: first, a thin crust forms on the water, then the layer thickens, spreading down from the surface, only in the case of the lithosphere – the deeper, the higher the pressure and temperature. Scientists suggest that the crystallization of the discovered diamond inclusion in the olivine grain should have occurred either from a silicate melt enriched in a carbonate component (carbon-containing fluid) or from a sulfide melt with dissolved carbon (Fe-Ni-Cu-Co-SC melt). At the same time, diamond crystallization occurred at temperatures no less than 200-250 degrees Celsius higher than the formation of later metasomatic diamonds (in the case of a silicate melt – at 1 degrees Celsius, in the case of a sulfide melt – at 400 degrees Celsius). “At first they didn’t believe us much. They tried to explain the appearance of a diamond in an olivine grain by the penetration of an already cooled carbonatite fluid/melt through a crack in a large olivine crystal with the subsequent formation of a diamond crystal in this crack during its healing, but we managed to convincingly prove to our opponents the inconsistency of this scenario,” Pokhilenko said. The scientist noted that this find confirmed assumptions about the time and parameters of the formation of the lower horizons of the lithosphere, reaching the pressures and temperatures of the diamond stability region, and, accordingly, the period of appearance of the very first diamonds on the planet in them. “The crystal from Udachnaya is apparently the oldest on Earth: at least among those that people have held in their hands and studied. We also showed that the conditions for the formation of diamonds in that era were significantly different from the characteristics of later processes of formation of the bulk of mined crystals. Both the environment and the range of temperatures and pressures have changed, and, accordingly, the depths of formation of later diamonds in a thicker and cooled lithosphere,” the scientist noted. According to him, the minimum values ​​of the formation depths of the studied diamonds in the colder lithosphere have shifted to levels of about 140 km, which corresponds to pressures of about 37 thousand. atmospheres at temperatures of about 900 degrees Celsius. The maximum pressures for the formation of such diamonds, as the publication notes, have also increased. Thus, the established pressure parameters for the formation of part of the crystals from the Snap Lake deposit, discovered by Siberian geologists in northwestern Canada, are about 120 thousand. atmospheres, which corresponds to depths of about 300 km, he noted. According to scientists, the most common rocks that carry diamonds from the depths of the lithospheric mantle to the earth’s surface are kimberlites. Samples of rocks and minerals of the lithospheric mantle brought to the surface by kimberlites of the Udachnaya pipe, which is one of the largest diamond deposits in Russia, have interested Russian and foreign scientists since the late 1960s. This is due, first of all, to the unique freshness of kimberlites and the fragments of minerals and rocks of the lithospheric mantle they contain. Until the closure of the pipe quarry in 2014, scientists collected and studied collections of unique samples brought to the earth’s surface by the Udachnaya kimberlites 370 million years ago from the depths of the lithosphere. The Udachnaya pipe is the largest kimberlite pipe and diamond deposit in Russia. It is located 20 km from the Arctic Circle within the Daldyn-Alakit kimberlite field. The pipe was discovered in 1955 by geologist Vladimir Shchukin during the Amakinsk geological exploration expedition. Later, in connection with the development of industrial diamond mining, the village of Udachny (now a city) and a mining and processing plant were built nearby. The Udachnaya pipe consists of two adjacent pipes – Eastern and Western. Both are highly diamondiferous, but differ in the content and characteristics of the diamonds. The pipe has been mined open-pit since 1982 – the quarry has already reached 530 meters, becoming one of the largest quarries in the world. But this depth is close to critical for open-pit mining, and in the future it is possible to extract ore here only in underground mine workings. At the same time, the ore body was divided into two branches, and less ore reserves remained than had already been extracted and processed. Currently, an underground mine is being built to continue further development of the deposit. Earlier, the chief geologist of the ALROSA company, Konstantin Garanin, reported that the reserves of the Udachnaya and Mir pipes, based on exploration results, amount to 88 million and 62 million carats, respectively. “We have completed exploration of the Mir pipe, which contains 62 million carats of diamonds. (. ) Next year or in 2024, we hope to put (on balance – IF) 88 million carats of the Udachnaya pipe. Also a big increase. We also hope for new discoveries that will allow us to maintain this trend straight – more than 1 billion carats,” he said, speaking at the forum “Industry and Geological Exploration of Yakutia: Through 100 Anniversaries” in Yakutsk on December 16. The Mir mine was flooded in an accident in August 2017 when water from a mined-out quarry located above broke into the mine. The ore from the Mir deposit is distinguished by its high content of high-quality diamonds. Before the accident, the Mir mine accounted for more than 10% of the ALROSA group’s production. The Mir pipe restoration project involves the construction of a new mine; the work will take from 6 to 9 years. Investments in the project are estimated at 126 billion rubles. Previously, ALROSA planned to put on its balance sheet the reserves of the Udachnaya pipe in 2022 in the amount of more than 80 million carats. Columnist Natalya Ponomareva

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Far East News

• A landslide hits a road on Sakhalin June 17, 13:39
• Power supply is being restored in the Yakut village of Sygynnakh, disrupted due to a forest fire June 17, 13:36
• Putin will go to Yakutsk on Tuesday – Kremlin June 17, 13:18
• The second tremors were registered in the BAM area in the north of Lake Baikal on June 17, 11:54
• A candidate from the “Communists of Russia” showed up for the election of the Khabarovsk governor June 17, 11:54