DIAMOND PIPELINE & TRACK OF COLORED GEMS

“It was a long travel through the harsh environment and the rugged country road that diamond and colored gems had undergone before meeting each other at the end.”

DIAMOND PIPELINE & TRACK OF COLORED GEMS

     Gems and jewelry, as decoration art, have been part of culture since the early time of our history. Diamond and colored gemstone are the 2 main categories of the gem world. Gemology, in accordance with these 2 categories, also comprises the study of diamond and colored gemstones in 2 different fields:  as Diploma in Diamond and Diploma in Gemology (for colored gems).

     The supply chain of diamond and colored gemstone is a curiosity. Peering into their pipeline of diamond, we find that the way from the mine until it reach the hand of consumers is somewhat smooth and straight forward, as the mining is almost directed by a single company. Diamonds are mostly mined from large surface excavations in to the parent rock of volcanic pipe where diamond or is found. Only very few diamond mines are located in the placer as secondary deposit. Hence the mining is to be mainly mechanized and the explosives may be used. This heavy industry required a large number of labor, teems of experts (geologist and engineer), heavy machines and high-techno appliances in order to carry out the mining process. Diamonds are collected and sorted according to their grade quality. Diamonds of gem quality are for gem market, whereas the low qualities are for industrial applications: diamond drill, diamond saw blade, abrasive powder, etc.  Hence, diamond production is an authentic industry operated with big capital.

     Almost 80% of diamond industry is under one roof, directed by a single company “De Beer” of which the head quarter is in the UK.  Such company of big-capital size is in full capacity to manage and develop the mining process, to fund the research in mining technology and, furthermore, to create an efficient marketing mechanism:  setting an influential pricing tool and the efficient promotion via publicity and advertisement

                ( Diamond Mining )                                                       Credit: www.techblog.com         

     Whereas the diamond mines are large-scale mining, the colored gem mines are quite the opposite and are mostly in small size. Almost all colored gems are mined in the gem placers, known as secondary deposit: these gem pebbles were taken away from their mother rocks by water runoff and are accumulated and embedded in the water ways.  Typically, an open pit is dug to reach the gem layers and buckets of earth are brought to the surface and sieved for gems. As the potential quantity of such deposit is not predictable, the industrial investment in colored gem mining seems to be not in valid operation due to the unpredictable yield.  The mining is simply hand-worked by the local labor (individuals or small groups of miners) and only few small machines are used. The gem mines in every country are independent: all countries have their own characteristic system and regulations. Without big capital funding like in the diamond industries, the supply chain of colored gems seems to lack the systematic promotional publicity and sale advertisement  like that of diamond. There is no mechanism either to control market price as in the case of diamond and this restriction is an inferior point on the colored gem side. Colored gem cutting is still made in traditional way as handicraft. Diamond production is on the other hand is fully industrialized and performed in the locked system. The colored gem production chain is widely opened to people of various careers:  many people are involved in this supply chain such as miners, rough stones dealers, gem treater , lapidary, cut stone dealer, wholesaler , jeweler and retailers. Consequently, the benefit is widely distributed to people of various careers.

  (Colored Gemstone mining)                                                 credit:www.sportlife7.blogspot.com

     As gem and jewellery, the appraisal of diamond depends on the color and the clarity. Diamond is a polymorph of pure carbon element (like coal and graphite) and its natural color is white or white tinted with yellowish hue. The more colorless (more white) the diamond is, the price grows, and the more tinted the diamond is the price drops. On the color table, the diamond color starts from alphabet D to Z.  D color stands for 100% colorless, E for 99%, F for 98% and it goes on until Z that stands for the most tinted with strong yellow hue.  As diamond is a colorless gem, the beauty of diamond is mainly its high luster (brilliance) and its display of fire (high dispersion that shows flash of rainbow). Without these characteristic physical, diamond would not have any visual appeal at all.  Some natural diamond of good color and clarity may appear less brilliant and display less fire due to certain factors (a topic which could be deal with in a separate article.)

     In the world of colored gemstone, the various groups, species, and varieties of gems boast of their colors like the blossoms in the garden and colors of the rainbow.  It is the world of diversity of color. The visual appeal of colored gemstones comes from their myriad colors in combination with their brilliance. Some colored gems of high dispersion can even show good display of fire as in diamond. In addition, some of these colored gem are phenomenal gems which give displays of charming effects such as asterism (star effect), chatoyancy (cat’s eye effect), play-of-color ( opalescence), iridescence and color change effect.  So the appraisal in colored gems depends on many more factors than a diamond. The gems of different spices are made of different chemical elements that result in their different gem properties.

     Despite their geographical origin, the route to where they travel: be it the straight and smooth or the twists  and turns, finally diamond and colored gemstone come across each other at an intersection where they stay harmoniously together, of course, in a jewellery setting. Both diamond and colored gems seems to promote the beauty of each other so as to complete the setting of the precious jewellery. This resembles those people from different walk of life who collaborate and sacrifice to create the perfect and pleasant society, in other word, the ideal utopia.

                                                                            Siriwat Jiamanusorn