Where are the most diamonds in the world?

PEACEFUL, /Yakutia/, June 8. /TASS/. There are no prerequisites for the depletion of large diamond deposits in Yakutia in the next 20 years, experts say. The Republic continues to be one of the world leaders in this area. 15% of all diamonds on the planet are mined here, Oleg Popov, director of the Diamond Sorting Center, told TASS. In 2016, Alrosa’s production volume in Yakutia amounted to 37,2 million carats, and this year the company plans to increase the figure to 39 million carats. According to Popov, in the deposits of the region the share of large diamonds, up to six carats, does not exceed 5%, and the share of 10 carats is equal to only 0,1% of the total volume of mined crystals.

Unfulfilled predictions

Deposits of Yakut diamonds were discovered in the 1950s in a regime of increased secrecy. The first crystals were discovered at the site of the Zarnitsa kimberlite pipe. Then geologists thought for a long time about how to encrypt the message about the discovery so that even radio operators could not guess. As a result, they sent word to Moscow: “We lit a pipe, the tobacco is good.” According to local historians, “smoking a pipe” meant that geologists had found a kimberlite pipe, and “good tobacco” meant that it contained a lot of diamonds. They note that many did not believe in the promotion of Yakut diamonds to the world market. The local museum still contains a clipping from The New York Times newspaper, which states that “Yakut diamonds lie in inaccessible places that neither animal nor bird can reach, not to mention people.” American journalists predicted that Yakut diamonds would hit the world market no earlier than the beginning of the 21st century. “We are glad that this forecast did not come true. At the moment, 15% of all diamonds in the world are mined in Yakutia, and the employees of the Mirny Diamond Sorting Center are working in emergency mode due to workload,” Popov noted. The center’s employees have strict schedules due to the fact that their work is tied to airplane schedules. In four days, they need to receive the crystals, sort them, and then send them to the United Sales Company in Moscow, which sells diamonds.

Subtleties of sorting

“We receive diamonds from all over the Yakut diamond-bearing province. We accept them into six classes, after which we sort them into 16 classes, into which diamonds are sold on the market,” Popov said, showing the premises where diamonds are sorted. Outwardly, they are somewhat reminiscent of the offices of a research institute: there is a lot of different equipment around, centrifuges where diamonds are spinning. All center employees wear white coats, caps and shoe covers. The sorted diamonds are stored in a safe, which looks like a cash vault. “On round sieves (equipment for sorting diamonds – TASS note) we sort small diamonds. We determine them by size. Medium-sized diamonds are poured into a special centrifuge and, using a vibration feed, are sent to a weighing cell, from which data about the crystal is automatically entered into the computer. We define large diamonds by weight, these include crystals of 1 carat or more, their share in Yakut deposits does not exceed 5%,” explained Popov. He noted that it is impossible to steal a diamond from the Sorting Center, since all of them are entered into a special information system, through which it is possible to track the path of a diamond from the Data Processing Center, where crystals are identified as precious stones, to the Unified Sales Company, which sells them on the market . Popov added that another of the tasks of the Diamond Sorting Center is to assess the mining and processing plants where crystals are mined. He explained that this is necessary in order to understand the economic effect of mining at the mine, and also so that this data is taken into account when further extracting crystals from it. “Before we ship diamonds, we take a sample from each shipment. Over the course of a month, a complete sample is accumulated, which consists of 3,5 – 4 thousand diamonds of various sizes. Our task is to assess what is happening at the mining and processing plant, what its economic efficiency is, what the dynamics are for large diamonds. According to the latest data, the best diamonds in terms of size and other characteristics are mined at the International mine – this is the most expensive diamond deposit,” Popov noted.

Harmful profession

The Center is mainly staffed by women. According to Popov, sorting gemstones requires a lot of concentration, which women have more than men. “With personnel, everything is difficult for us, since in Mirny they do not train for this profile. It is also economically unprofitable to order specialists from somewhere. The main thing in our profession is experience and the desire to work,” added the agency’s interlocutor. According to him, women who sort crystals do not perceive them as precious stones. Employees of the center, in a conversation with a TASS correspondent, noted that there is “no romance” in their work, and they treat diamonds as a subject of research, not luxury. “The salary at the Diamond Sorting Center is small, like that of engineers, however, they (workers – TASS note) are paid extra for harmful work. Diamonds themselves are not harmful – harm to health is caused by the static position in which employees spend 8-10 hours, sorting crystals. Also, in this work, vision quickly deteriorates, since people are forced to use various magnifying devices to examine diamonds when sorting them,” added Popov. The Center’s employees’ least favorite day is Thursday. On this day, planes with precious stones should fly to Moscow and north to mining and processing plants for a month’s trial. “We receive diamonds on Monday and have until Thursday to sort them. There are no time reserves, sometimes you have to stay late at work, since nothing is rejected: part of the diamonds goes to jewelry stores, and part is used for the production of diamond chips and other products,” Popov explained.

About the center

The diamond sorting center in the city of Mirny was created in 1990. It includes various production and service areas: storage, classification area, sorting and evaluation area, diamond mineralogical study area, analytical department and others. The movement and accounting of diamond products is completely computerized, taking into account “feedback” from mining enterprises. Reception of diamonds and all technological operations are strictly recorded in a computer database. Another important task of the Center is to study diamonds from new deposits and issue the first forecasts about the quality of the raw materials of the newly opened pipes. It also stores a complete collection of diamonds mined in the Yakut diamond-bearing province in the process of geological prospecting over many years. More than $35 billion worth of diamond products passed through the hands of the Center’s experts and sorters. Diamonds from the Center are sent to Moscow, to the Unified Sales Organization, and to Yakutsk, to a diamond trading enterprise. Here in Mirny they monitor raw materials from different deposits, the results of which are used when planning the work of mining and processing plants. Vitaly Khalevin The discovery of diamonds in South Africa played a decisive role in world diamond history. Before diamonds were discovered in the Kimberley, they were extremely rare and were found only in small quantities in India and Brazil. Today, South Africa continues to be one of the largest diamond producers in the world, and it is estimated that up to 65% of the world’s diamonds were produced from African mines. The first diamond discoveries in South Africa were alluvial, meaning they were found in deposits along a river bed. In 1867, a 15-year-old boy named Erasmus Jacobs found a small transparent stone on the banks of the Orange River, near the farm where he lived with his family. Erasmus showed the stone to his father, who in turn showed it to local farmer Schalk van Niekerk. Van Niekerk found the stone very intriguing and offered to buy it from the Jacobs family. Unaware of its value, he sent it by regular post to Grahamstown, where Dr William Guybon Atherston confirmed it to be a 21,24-carat diamond. It was named the “Eureka Diamond” and is the most important diamond in South African history. A few years later, Johannes Nicolaas de Beer and his brother Diederik Arnoldus De Beer, two Dutch settlers, discovered diamonds on their farm. This discovery led to a diamond rush where people from different parts of South Africa invaded their land in hopes of finding their own diamonds. Unable to protect their land from the masses of people flocking to it, they decided to sell their property. Although the brothers did not become owners of the diamond mines, their name De Beers was given to one of the mines, and today the De Beers name is still synonymous with the diamond industry around the world. These events led to the Great Kimberley Diamond Rush, when people from all over the world gathered in the Kimberley to make money mining diamonds in South Africa. More than 22 million tons of earth were recovered from what is now known as the “Big Hole” in the Kimberley, and about three tons of diamonds. Shimansky has a license to purchase rough diamonds directly from South African mines. Every Shimansky diamond is cut and polished in-house to unlock its full potential. The Big Hole is considered the deepest man-made hole in the world. It has an almost circular shape, a perimeter of 2 km, a depth of 215 m and is located in the city center. In just a few years, South Africa produced more diamonds than India did in over 2000 years, with the Kimberley responsible for producing 95% of the world’s diamonds at the time. Today, the Big Hole is a famous tourist attraction. During the 1870s and 1880s, Kimberley was home to great wealth and many great rivalries. The most notable of these rivalries was that between Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato, English immigrants. Both men were owners of their own companies, and at some stage both owned shares in the same company. They competed for shares, and in 1888, Rhodes prevailed and combined the assets of all his diamond companies to form one of the world’s leading diamond mining groups called De Beers Consolidated Mines. Today, De Beers is one of the most successful and well-known companies in the world and has a monopoly in the global diamond industry. The Eureka diamond changed hands before it was finally acquired by De Beers, who donated the Eureka diamond to the people of South Africa. It is currently on display at the Kimberley Mine Museum in South Africa. The first diamond discoveries in South Africa were alluvial, meaning they were found in deposits along a river bed. In 1867, a 15-year-old boy named Erasmus Jacobs found a small transparent stone on the banks of the Orange River, near the farm where he lived with his family. Erasmus showed the stone to his father, who in turn showed it to local farmer Schalk van Niekerk. Van Niekerk found the stone very intriguing and offered to buy it from the Jacobs family. Unaware of its value, he sent it by regular post to Grahamstown, where Dr William Guybon Atherston confirmed it to be a 21,24-carat diamond. It was named the “Eureka Diamond” and is the most important diamond in South African history. One of the largest diamond producers in South Africa was Premier Mine. It was founded following the discovery of the Cullinan diamond pipe near Pretoria in 1902 and has produced some of the largest and most famous diamonds in the world, including the Cullinan in 1905 (a 3106,75 carat diamond named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine). . Today, two diamonds cut and polished from the Cullinan Diamond are part of the British Royal Family’s Crown Jewels. Diamonds in South Africa have a history of almost 150 years, and their discovery in the Kimberley made them easily accessible to the Western world. Diamond mines make a major contribution to the South African economy. Five of the country’s nine provinces have mines, employing thousands of local workers to mine them. The diamond industry continues to be one of the country’s most profitable industries and has played a major role in South Africa becoming one of Africa’s most economically successful countries. Explore the history of the South African diamond industry on the Shimansky Diamond Experience Tour under personal guidance. Discover some of the great names in diamond history, including Cecil John Rhodes, Barney Barnato and the Oppenheimer family. The tour also pays tribute to South Africa’s most famous diamonds, such as the great Cullinan rough diamond and display cases. samples of kimberlite rock billions of years old. Also on display are life-size replicas of famous diamonds that adorned members of the royal family, the rich and famous. The true value of a Shimansky jewelry creation is only realized when it is worn by the person for whom it is intended.