Nature never stops providing the extraordinary, unexpected and unique. This adamantine oddity was unearthed at an open-pit mine 200 miles north of Nyurba, Russia last October. Specialists immediately passed it to ALROSA's Research and Development Geological Enterprise.
They had been smacking their lips at the Argyle diamond mine. They were hungry to receive the $10 million that beautiful, rare rough pink diamond would bring them. Alas, evil fate!
You know it as emerald, the birthstone of May. Today's post celebrates all Maybies and Mayple (May babies and May people) with a focus on "your stone." The largest high-quality rough emerald ever found, and the poetic story behind its provenance and sale.
Have you heard of X-Ray diamond sorting? If not, be my guest and travel behind the scenes to an alluvial diamond-mining operation overseen by our friends at Alrosa. They have provided an amazing video example of this efficient method of separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were.
Humans need variety right now. We're always hungry for something new, sick of eating the same old thing. So let's change things up. Set out your tableware, put on the candles and prepare for a nouvelle experience in three courses. Bon appétit!
“A diamond is forever,” but the makers of that slogan considered it a two-way street, connecting a diamond’s billion-year past with an infinite-future. They never imagined someone proposing with a “forever” diamond that’s younger than the bride.
This fascinating game gets played where the resources are rich, but the people are poor. It is like being on the stock market floor, I suppose. A point upward or downward can quickly bring delight - or defeat.
How much is a quadrillion? Here's how 1 quadrillion pennies would appear, stacked behind the Sears Tower, Empire State Building, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and a football field... Now replace each penny with a ton of diamonds!
Livia Firth and Andrew Morgan recently teamed up again to produce a 14-minute documentary, investigating the positive-seeming impact the diamond industry has on this mid-sized African country.
Thousands of years ago in southwest Africa a party of Nama People discovered a field of odd iron fragments to use in tools and weapons. Imagine their shock if they were told those fragments had come from the very stars they worshipped.