Russel Simmons selling bling for African people

The fashion mogul and hip-hop Russell Simmons said that he's selling blings and diamonds to help raise money for the development and empowerment of Africans. - NEW YORK

49-year-old entrepreneur declared his "Green Initiative" jewelry, which was manufactured and designed by Simmons Jewelry Co. Twenty-five percent of proceeds from the sales will go towards the Diamond Empowerment Fund, that will support institutions, like schools and colleges, in South Africa and Botswana and help in economic development.

His recent visit to South Africa and Botswana to tour diamond mines and factories coincides with efforts by human rights groups to raise awareness about the so-called conflict diamonds, which have fueled and funded wars in Africa. Fighting forces sell the gems to raise funds for weapons. Millions have been killed in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The president of Simmons Jewelry Co., Scott Rauch said the company's diamonds are blood conflict-free.

"Our purpose was to see how we could have an affect on the diamond industry," he told a packed news conference Tuesday...

Source: FoxNews

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The Country of Poverty and Diamonds : Sierra Leone

POPULATION: 5.7 million.

CAPITAL: Freetown.

THE ECONOMY: Gold, bauxite, titanium ore and especially diamonds are about two-thirds of foreign exchange income before war and instability wrecked their economy. Only in June this year, experts said that Sierra Leone has made little progress in tackling corruption and has squandered foreign aid, leaving its most vulnerable citizens as destitute as they were before the civil war ended.

Electricity and piped water mains are very rare even in the shanty towns that make up the Freetown.

Few of paved roads in the rest of the country, and 70 percent of the country's population survives on less than $1 a day.

ETHNICITY: The Temne & Mende each takes almost one-third of the population. Lokko, Sherbro, Limba, Susso, Fulani, Kono and Krio are other country's popular groups.

RELIGION: Mostly, the people practices traditional African religions. One-third of which are Muslims, who live mainly in the north and catholic minority is just concentrated in the capital.

LANGUAGE: English is the official language but Temne, Mende and Krio (Creole) are also spoken. Krio serves as the commercial language in the capital.

GEOGRAPHY: Sierra Leone is about 71,740 sq km (27,699 sq miles). It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea to the north and east and Liberia to the southeast. The climate is tropical.

SOME OF COUNTRY'S POPULAR HISTORY: It won independence from Britain in 1961 and suffered years of dictatorship, coup attempts and corrupt rule.

-- President Siaka Stevens made the country a one-party state in 1978, quit in 1985 aged 80 and chose former army chief Joseph Momoh as successor.

-- Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebelled against Momoh in 1991, starting a decade of war that ended in early 2002 after an estimated 50,000 people were killed.

-- Having been deposed once in 1997 by a coalition of army officers led by Major-General Johnny Paul Koroma and the RUF, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was re-elected in May 2002. The RUF, standing as a political party, won little support in the ballot.

-- A Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the country's government and the United Nations in 2002 to try those most responsible for human rights violations during the later stages of the civil war.

-- In July 2007 Sierra Leone's war crimes court sentenced three rebel militia leaders to long jail terms for "some of the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes ever recorded". In August it convicted two former leaders of a pro-government militia of murder and other crimes. Rebel leaders are on trial.

-- The August 11 parliamentary polls were won by the opposition All People's Congress with 59 of the 112 seats. The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) of outgoing President Tejan Kabbah, which dominated the last parliament, won 43 seats. The PMDC, a breakaway of the SLPP, took the remaining 10.

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The Diamond Simulants : "Looks-like" of the Real Diamonds

Diamond simulant are the imitation and referring to any stone material that has the appearance of diamond but it does not posess the characteristics, atomic structure, chemical composition or physical properties of natural (true) diamond. Common simulants like Cubic Zirconia, Color less Synthetic Corundum (sapphire), Synthetic Spinel, Strontium Titanate, Yttrium Aluminium Garnet (YAG), Gadolinium Gallium Garnet (GGG), and Glass (Paste).

Diamond Simulants Subcategories:

1. Gems - the stones that are natural with the same appearance like of the diamond. Examples of this stones are sapphire, topaz, beryl, quartz, zircon; all of these gemstones in their colorless
forms.

2. Natural Synthetics - These are were the manufactured stones that have the same chemical composition, atomic structure, and physical properties of a natural counterpart. They are man-made, which includes: Synthetic Rutile, Synthetic Sapphire, and Synthetic Spinel.

3. Artificial Synthetics - These are the manufactured stones that have no natural counterpart, which include: Strontium Titanate, Yttrium Aluminate (YAG) and Cubic Zirconia.

4. Composites - Stones that are created from more than one stone to enhance particular properties. For example glass which is very soft which prevent the surface from scratching a layer of harder material was bonded to the surface. These stones are also known as doublets.

The reason why this simulants was created for over the years because diamond is so desirable yet so expensive. These are more affordable to buy than the real thing and to the untrained eye look almost the same. Diamond simulants ("look alikes") are not the same as synthesized diamonds. Due to its low cost and very close visual likeness to diamond, cubic zirconia has remained the most gemologically and economically important diamond simulant since 1976.

Current popular diamond simulants include cubic zirconia (CZ) and moissanite. Technically they are not diamonds, artificial or otherwise. Recently the trend has been to market these simulants less as artificial or synthetic diamonds and more as new gems in their own right. Of course, natural diamond remains a wonderful luxury item - if you can afford it.

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Martini garnished with Diamonds

This new called "diamond-tini" is garnished with a 1.06-carat sparkler and a registered price tag of $15,000, according to Reuters reports. Guests at the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo can now order a cocktail that is made from this item.

Bernard Viola, the hotel's manager told the Reuters News service. "It's a timeless drink and diamonds are a girl's best friend, so you combine both this time of year in Japan when proposals are rampant."

This extravagant vodka martini is prepared for tableside to a serenade of the Shirley Bassey hit "Diamonds Are Forever." The diamond garnish is later set in a ring by the local jeweler.

No diamond-tinis have been sold yet, but Viola is confident that the hotel's bartenders will be able to sell at least three a month.

"There is a market for everything you create," he said. "Today it is all about luxury."

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A largest D-color Flawless Diamond

This brilliant cut D-color flawless diamond weighing 84.37 carats displays during a preview at Sotheby's auction house in Geneva....Sold on Nov. 14 at an auction called ‘Magnificent Jewels’ in Geneva.

This has to be the largest D-color flawless diamond on auction and this breathtaking cut will oblige everyone for its estimated cost worth US$15 to 16 million (euro 10.5-11.2 million).

Definition of D-color:

Diamonds are graded by color, starting at D and to Z. The fact that this colorless stones are graded D, which are treasured for their value and rarity, and highest on the Diamond Quality Pyramid.

This diamonds appear colorless, and may actually have slight yellow or brown tones. The color grades include P and Q, and although it appears to be beautiful, they are less rare and therefore less valuable. To appreciate this simple beauty of each individual stone, you should contrast diamonds side by side with a jeweler.

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Faux Diamonds

Although Phoenix Diamonds are REAL, the fakes are very good - but just not real diamonds

Moissanite is silicon carbide and is used in jewellery, it is called Moissanite after the jewel's discoverer Dr. Henri Moissan.

Moissanite is somewhat similar to diamond in several important respects: it is transparent and hard (9, although a patent states 8.5-9.0, on the Mohs scale compared to 10 for diamond), with a refractive index between 2.65 and 2.69 (compared to 2.42 for diamond). Moissanite is somewhat harder than common cubic zirconium.

Unlike diamond, Moissanite is strongly birefringent. This quality is desirable in some optical applications, but not in gemstones. For this reason, Moissanite jewels are cut along the optic axis of the crystal to minimize birefringent effects. It is lighter (density 3.22 vs. 3.56), and much more resistant to heat. This results in a stone of higher lustre, sharper facets and good resilience. Loose moissanite stones may be placed directly into ring moulds; unlike diamond, which burns at 800 °C, moissanite remains undamaged by temperatures up to twice the 900 °C melting point of 18k gold.

In 1998, Charles & Colvard introduced jewel-quality synthetic silicon carbide to the market under the name "moissanite". This gemstone possesses superior fire and brilliance to diamonds. Upon introduction, some jewellers misidentified moissanite as diamond. Moissanite's thermal conductivity is very close to that of diamond, rendering useless the older thermal testers that they relied upon. Moissanite has a slightly higher index of refraction (brilliance) and much greater dispersion (fire) than diamond, as it shows many more "flashes" of colour than a diamond. Unlike cubic zirconia and other diamond simulants, moissanite does not cloud over time, and is extremely durable.

Once its properties are known, moissanite is easy to distinguish from diamond, as it is doubly refractive and has a very slight green, yellow, or grey fluorescence under ultraviolet light. Because the brilliance of the moissanite helps to cancel the perceived colour, cuts with higher brilliance tend to have a much "whiter appearance" (i.e., round brilliant, square brilliant, and cushion cut) versus cuts that have a lower refractive index such as the marquise, radiant and especially the pear-shaped cut. The colour is often defined as "near colourless" which on the diamond colour scale ranges from G through J.

Charles & Colvard markets moissanite primarily to self-purchasing women. However, moissanite engagement rings, eternity bands and circle pendants have become popular among value-conscious consumers. For example, in the trade, a 1-carat (200 mg) moissanite gem sells for about $500 (2007 USD), while a diamond of similar size and colour typically sells for $4500 or more.

Natural canary coloured diamonds sell for around $9000/crt while pink can reach $100,000 depending on the four C's...........

Basic extract from Wikipedia

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$10.4 million worth for one of the Huge Rough Diamond

Sold at $10.4 million, one of the largest rough diamonds is expected to be transformed into a polished stone of more than 100 carats. The huge 493-carat rough diamond from Lesotho, the 18th largest ever recovered in the world, was sold to Graff Jewelers of London at a tender in Antwerp.

Miner Gem Diamonds explained that the diamond recovered at Letseng le Terai mine in September, was sold for an expensive price of $21,000 per carat, against a global average diamond price of $81 per carat. The largest rough quality-gem diamond ever found was the Cullinan Diamond, found in South Africa in 1905, at 3,106.75 carats. "The Letseng Legacy was named to reflect the growing legacy that the Letseng le Terai mine is creating as a producer of significant diamonds," Gem Diamonds said in a statement.

Letseng Diamonds, 70 percent owned by Gem Diamonds and 30 percent owned by the government of Lesotho, has now produced three of the world's top 20 diamonds, including the 603-carat Lesotho Promise. Graff Jewelers were also the winning bidder for the Lesotho Promise in 2006. A brilliant-cut white diamond, which weighs 84.37 carats, was sold at an auction in Geneva on Wednesday for nearly 18.2 million Swiss francs ($16.21 million) to Guess Jeans founder Georges Marciano, Sotheby's said. That diamond was the second most expensive stone ever sold at auction, eclipsed only by the 100.10 carat "Star of the Season" diamond, which went for $16.5 million in May 1995.

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A Tea-colored Diamond Found in the Park

Chad Johnson, found a diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park, and he almost threw away his precious find. A cube-shaped rock that have been plucked out of his sifters, turned to be a 4.38-carat, tea-colored diamond.

Chad, 36, made the dig on Saturday at the park and left his equipment in a locker. When he came back Monday morning, he made the discovery. Crater of Diamonds State Park, which opened in 1972, the world's only diamond-producing site open to the public, and visitors can keep the gems they gather. The largest diamond found at the park was the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight, a white diamond found in 1975.

Johnson discovered the second-largest diamond at the park this year. In June, a Louisiana man found a 4.8-carat stone. More than 700 diamonds have been found there this year. Since moving to Arkansas from Iowa in February, Johnson said, he was living off money made by selling diamonds. He only recently took a job at a convenience store, partly because he "got tired of selling diamonds to make ends meet."

Park officials declined to speculate how much money Johnson could get for the diamond. Johnson suggested he expects much more than what he is used to getting. "If someone offers me that much money, it's theirs," Johnson said. - MURFREESBORO, Arkansas.

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The First Makers of Man-made Diamonds

Baltzar von Platen

In 1949, ASEA hired a team of five scientists and engineers, headed by Erik Lunblad. The top secret project was called Quintus and Von Platen's laboratory became known as Quintuslaboratorium. Von Platen, an extraordinary man who had invented the fridge (refrigerator). That is why ASEA took him seriously. His dream was nothing less than to invent a machine that could make Koh-i-Noor diamonds.

The scientists from General Electric, in 1950's were not the only ones that try to make diamonds. In a magnificent old hunting palace on the outskirts of Stockholm, the Swedish electrical company ASEA had already been funding an eccentric independent scientist called Baltzar von Platen to look into making diamonds

Like GE, Von Platen's team knew that high pressure and high temperature was needed to break graphite's atomic bonds. And like General Electric, they too had a difficult time in making a machine stronger enough to create those conditions. Their diamond press was made of a completely different design. It had six pyramid-shaped anvils, which when pressed together formed a sphere around a sample of graphite. The whole structure was encased in a strong copper jacket and suspended in an alchohol-filled tank at 6000 atmospheres of pressure. But it was highly dangerous.

If a leak appeared, it would create a high-velocity alcohol jet capable of drilling right through a hand. The whole device was capable of producing over 50,000 atmospheres and the graphite sample was surrounded by thermite which, although it could raise the temperature by 2000°C, was unstable and, combined with the alcohol, potentially explosive.

Von Platen made sure that the most valuable members of the team left the room when the press was operating. The problem for the Swedish team was that their machine was so complicated that every time they put the apparatus under pressure and something broke, it took a whole day to unravel and rebuild it. Eventually they too realised that by adding iron carbide to the graphite sample it lowered graphite's melting point and that as more and more graphite was dissolved in the metal, it became saturated. They were sure that they had cracked the theory of making diamonds.

On February 16th 1953, nearly a year before General Electric, Erik Lundblad ran the high pressure press at 83,000 atmospheres and about 2000°C for a full hour. On unwrapping the carbon parcel, he was astonished - he found diamond crystals, no bigger than grains of sand. Unfortunately for Von Platen, ASEA decided to keep the experiment a secret in case a competitor stole their secret, and the experiment was not duplicated or published - a condition of recognition for scientific inventions - until after General Electric's announcement.

As a result the world has never officially recognised that it was Von Platen's team who in fact had made the first synthetic diamond.

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Lesotho Promise : The Giant Diamond Ever Found

The biggest diamond to be found in 13 years, the "Lesotho Promise," was sold at an auction for more than $12 million and is expected to be sold in excess of $20 million once it is cut up. - ANTWERP, Belgium.

The 603-carat (120 gram) diamond, named after the tiny African mountain kingdom where it was found, went under the hammer at the Antwerp Diamond Centre and was sold to the South African Diamond Corporation, owner of luxury jewellers Graff.


The 10th largest white diamond ever to be found, it will be cut into a large heart-shaped diamond and several smaller stones which will then be sold. The uncut diamond is a third bigger than a golf ball.

Johnny Kneller from the South African Diamond Corporation said that once it was cut up, he expected to sell the stones for a third more than the auction price.

"We can't say for sure but we hope it's going to sold over $20 million," Kneller said.

Diamonds have long been a status symbol and were famously serenaded as as a girl's best friend by Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".

Growing affluence has boosted sales and busy shopping streets such as London's Bond Street are awash with jewellers and luxury goods stores offering right-hand diamond rings for well-heeled women.

The biggest rough diamond ever found was the Cullinan at 3,106 carats, while the second largest, the Excelsior, was 995 carats. Both were found in South Africa.

The Lesotho diamond was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine high in the mountains of the tiny nation which is surrounded by South Africa, by a woman who was sorting through the rocks.

"She started screaming and all the staff thought she had been electrocuted," said Clifford Elphick, head of Gem Diamond Mining, which owns 70 percent of the mine.

He said he was very pleased with the price that the gem had been sold.

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The International Cremation & Burial Exhibition

Hilton Newcastle Gateshead Hotel, Bottle Bank, Gateshead, NE8 2AR
Telephone [44] (0) 191 490 9700

Yeh, I know it sound bizarre, but there is probably a conference and exhibition for almost every single subject on the planet and death, funerals, cremations and the like are no exception.

We'll be exhibiting there on the 12th of November to the 14th, I hope anyone reading this will come to the event and view our Memorial Diamonds at first hand.

We will be showing for the first time our new BLUE DIAMOND range - admittedly a lot more expensive than the Canary Yellows and using more ashes, but the Blue Diamonds are stunning.

In the near future, we will be installing a new laser inscriber to mark all the new laboratory created range and if required - special messages.

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Raining Diamonds in Uranus and Neptune

Uranus seen through the space shuttle voyager 2

The said planets contain a high amounts of methane, which the UC Berkeley researchers now shown can turn into diamond at very high temperatures and pressures found inside these planets.

Experiments done at the University of California, Berkeley, are the indication of future explorers of our solar system that they may find diamonds falling down through the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus. Berkeley - October 1, 1999

"Once the diamonds form, they will fall like raindrops or hailstones toward the center of the planet," explained by Laura Robin Benedetti, graduate student in physics at UC Berkeley.

The team, led by Benedetti and Raymond Jeanloz, professor of geology and geophysics, produced these conditions inside a diamond anvil cell, squeezing liquid methane to several hundred thousand times atmospheric pressure. When focused a laser beam on the pressurized liquid, heating it to some 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, diamond dust appeared.

They report their experimental findings in a paper in the Oct. 1 issue of Science. The demonstration that methane can convert to diamond as well as other complex hydrocarbons in the interiors of giant planets like Neptune hint at a complex chemistry inside gaseous planets and even brown dwarf stars. Brown dwarfs are small, dim stars barely larger than the largest gas giant planets.

"This is opening the door to study of the interesting types of chemical reactions taking place inside planets and brown dwarfs," Jeanloz said. "Now that technology is able to reproduce the high pressures and temperatures found there, we are getting much better quality information on the chemical reactions taking place under these conditions."

"It is not amazing that chemistry like this happens inside planets, it's just that most people haven't dealt with the chemical reactions that can occur," Benedetti said. "The interior of these planets may be much more complicated that our current picture."

A simple calculation, for example, shows that the energy released by diamonds settling to the planet's core could account for the excess heat radiated by Neptune, that is, the heat given off by Neptune in excess of what it receives from the sun.

"What's exciting to us is the application of this high-pressure chemistry to understanding the outer planets," Jeanloz said.

"As more planets are found in unexpected orbits around other stars, the effects of internal chemical processes will need to be further clarified in order to obtain a general understanding of planet formation and evolution," the authors concluded in the Science paper.












Possible structure of Neptune


Our solar system's other gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn may also contain diamonds produced under such conditions, though they contain proportionately less methane than Neptune and Uranus. Based on theoretical calculations, Neptune and Uranus are estimated to contain about 10 to 15 percent methane under an outer atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. (See the above image for presumed internal structure of Neptune)

Several groups of researchers have suggested that the methane in these planets could conceivably turn into diamond at fairly shallow depths, about one tenth of the way to the center. Nearly two decades ago, a group at Lawrence Livermore National laboratory shocked some methane and reported the formation of diamond before the stuff evaporated. That group was led by retired scientist Marvin Ross and researchers William Nellis and Francis Ree.

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How are Diamonds Created or Formed?

The Origin of Diamonds...

The largest body of water, the oceans, had microorganisms that lived and died millions of years ago. When they died there bodies fell into the ocean floor. After that, the bodies decomposed, and what's left was almost pure carbon. Then the crust of the earth surface is in constant motion. The movement is due to what you call the tectonic plates and the continental drift.

When one of the tectonic plates were pushed under another the bodies of the microorganism, now carbon, that is also buried under tons of rock. The carbon is subject to extreme pressures by the rock pressing down upon it and by extreme heat, which is ranging between 1100 to 1400 degrees Celsius. If the carbon being acted upon is pure then the diamond will be colorless which is normal for diamonds. If nitrogen or sulphur is also included in the carbon then some color may be added to the diamond. This process preserves the unique crystal structure that makes diamonds the hardest natural material known. The arrangement of the atoms causes the diamonds to have tighter atoms than any other substance in the world.

When volcanoes erupted, this microorganisms, which are now diamonds, are forced to the service. Conventional diamonds are mined from explosive volcanic rocks (kimberlites) that transport them from depths in excess of 100 kilometers by volcanic action.

Man Made, in the year 2004 scientists from Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory managed to produce gems that are harder than any other crystals. These man made diamonds were produced using a gas mixture. The crystals that were produced were so hard that the instruments and other paraphernalia used to make them broke. The great part about these man made diamonds is they were created in less than a day. Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure, about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. That is a very simplistic view and also very hard to do. Modern methods use a very complicated process that requires the crystals to be grown using a special high growth-rate chemical vapor deposition.

Then the crystals were exposed to very high pressure and temperatures make them even harder. There is then a production of a chemical reaction that yields what is called carbon rain. The carbon rain atoms arrange themselves in the same structure as the container or seed used to catch the carbon rain. As they arrange themselves into a tight composition, they turn into man-made diamonds. Most of the man made diamonds are yellow in color. This is due to the chemicals used in the creation process. Man-made diamonds are very difficult to distinguish from natural ones. A trained jeweler could tell the difference if he could detect the different growth patterns and the lack of inclusions. Inclusions are the tiny bits of material that are usually imbedded in a natural diamond and are considered a flaw.

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Diamonds Latest Discovery : 4-Billion-Year-Old Diamonds

A scientific discovery that startled the journalists proclaiming “that diamonds really are forever.”

Discovered in western Australia recently the Micro-slivers of diamonds that are 4 billion years old, or within 300 million years of the Earth's formation. These diamonds, are no no thicker than a hair and of no use in jewelry, are 1 billion years older than the diamonds previously thought to be the world's oldest, and scientists use them to uncover clues and discover about the earth's formation. The diamonds were found in zircon crystals, which, scientists said, that is not to be confused with cubic zirconia...

More Discounted diamonds and jewelries on Diamond Jewelry site

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The New World's Largest Diamond

The stone shown in picture is perfect octahedron, and also exceedingly rare. Readers who saw pictures of it through a link on the JCKonline guessed it as a “garnet,” “topaz,” or “big chunk of green glass.”



A reported record-holder 8,000 ct. diamond that made headlines around the world—but later was revealed to be a hoax. The stone, discovered in South Africa, was said to be more than double the weight of the 3,100 ct. Cullinan, considered the world's largest.

The spokesman for diamond's owner, Brett Jolly (South African businessman), told JCK the man described it “as most beautiful perfect in shape, color, and clarity he has never seen before. It breaks all the rules when it comes to the diamond industry.”


The story began to unravel when Jolly went to test the store, accompanied by Melody Brandon, a reporter from the Johannesburg Sunday Times. Brandon, who was blindfolded for part of the journey, had a diamond tester from Ernie Blom, the South Africa–based president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, who was brought in to authenticate the stone.

But when they met Andre Harding, Jolly's business partner and owner of the land where the stone was supposedly found, he wouldn't let them use Blom's tester, saying it “wouldn't work.” Brandon briefly held the stone and found it “too light” for a diamond. “It had bubbles in it,” she says. When Harding tested the stone with his own device, Brandon noticed it still had its cap on and was set to “manual,” so he could manipulate it.

When Harding was confronted about this, he “turned pale,” Brandon says, “and went on this ramble that he had to speak to his lawyer.” Then Jolly and Harding got into a screaming match, leaving Brandon briefly stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Jolly, who did not return calls from JCK once the hoax was revealed, has told the media he will press charges and that he believes the actual stone was stolen. “This poor man still believes there is a stone out there somewhere,” Brandon says. Blom has disassociated himself from the story. “Something just wasn't right,” he says.

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