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Additional Articles #2

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Engagement Ring Guru > Additional Articles - Series 2

Diamonds Around the World

Today diamonds for engagement rings are mined in about 25 countries, on every continent but Europe and Antarctica. However, only a few diamond deposits were known until the 20th century, when scientific understanding and technology extended diamond exploration and mining around the globe. For 1,000 years, starting in roughly the 4th century BCE, India was the only source of diamonds. In 1725, important sources were discovered in Brazil, and in the 1870s major finds in South Africa marked a dramatic increase in the diamond supply for engagement rings. Additional major producers now include several African countries, Siberian Russia, and Australia.

It is a modern misconception that the world's diamonds come primarily from South Africa: diamonds are a world-wide resource. The common characteristic of primary diamond deposits is the ancient terrain that hosts the kimberlite and lamproite pipes that bring diamonds to Earth's surface.

The monumental increase in diamond production in the 20th century is shown on this graph. India's maximum production, perhaps 50,000 to 100,000 carats annually in the 16th century, is very small by modern standards. Brazil and
Venezuela are barely discernible compared to South African production following discoveries in 1867. For the most part, except for major wars and economic recessions, diamond production has been steadily increasing since then, with non-African sources growing in relative proportion. Major production is now dominated by Australia, Botswana, Russia, and Congo Republic (Zaire), but South Africa is still a major producer, in both volume and value.

Diamonds have been transported across vast area of southern Africa. There are more than 3,000 kimberlite pipes many not bearing diamonds, of course drained by tributaries to the Orange River and its precursors, which end at the Atlantic coast. The rivers carried water, sediments, and diamonds to the ocean.

Over the past 100 million years up to 1,400 meters have been eroded from the land's surface, releasing billions of carats of diamonds on a trip to the sea. An estimate of diamonds eroded from the Kimberley mine -- the "Big
Hole" -- alone is 500,000 carats. The rivers carried most of the eroded diamonds to the Atlantic Ocean, although about 10% of them were store in the alluvial deposits of the drainage systems. The rest are in the past and present beach deposits of the Atlantic coast, from Port Nolloth in
Namaqualand to Luderitz in Namibia.

Because powerful ocean waves break the poorer quality diamonds, 90-95 percent of marine diamonds are of gem quality. The littoral zone, the area of wave action on the Atlantic coast where diamonds accumulate, has moved in
and out with changes in sea level, but shore lines have been constant over long periods, resulting in wave-cut terraces with hollows and crevices in which diamonds concentrated. These terraces are preserved hundreds of meters
both above and below sea level and are the focus of mining activity. These make great conditions for engagement ring quality diamonds.