History of Man Made Diamonds

Executive Summary about Man Made Diamonds by James Chartwell

The incentive to create man made diamonds resulted from the desire of scientists and researchers to improve technology at a much lower cost than expensive mined diamonds.  Valued for their brilliance and luster, diamonds are also extremely hard and durable.  In his short story, “The Diamond Maker”, writer H. G. Wells, also referred to the concept of synthetic diamonds.

Political commentary and science-fiction aside, man made diamonds are produced in two ways: synthetic and simulant.  Synthetics are exact in structure and chemistry as natural diamonds.  The first stone in the history of man made diamonds was Moissanite, a simulant.  The iron contracted on rapid cooling, generating the high pressure required to transform graphite into diamond.

Others duplicated Moissan’s process, but produced only very small diamonds.  Ruff in 1917 and Dr. Willard Hersey in 1926, both “grew” these tiny diamonds.  McPherson College still displays Hersey’s synthetic diamond in Kansas at its museum.

Sweden’s major electrical manufacturing company in Stockholm, ASEA, produced a true synthetic diamond (exact structure and chemistry as a diamond) in 1953.  This formation of a synthetic diamond, however, was never published. So, when General Electric’s Tracy Hall produced in 1954, via a “belt” apparatus, successfully synthesized a diamond, it was that discovery that was published in “Nature” Colleagues easily replicated Hall’s work, and the industrial man made diamond industry was born, dominated for years by DeBeers Industrial Diamonds and GE Superabrasives.  Producing 3 billion carats or 600 metric tons in 2006, the industrial diamond industry annually brings in $1 billion.

As methods of growing synthetic diamonds improves, more and more companies enter the market, especially for diamonds of gemstone quality.  The history of man made diamonds is fraught with accidents.  Apollo Diamonds and the Russians were seeking a way to create synthetic diamonds to aid science.

Man Made Diamond Types

Those “diamonds” were actually silicon carbide (SiC) and are now classified as Moissanite, diamond simulants.  Others attempted to synthesize diamonds, and only recently succeeded in growing a colorless, pure gemstone quality crystal.

The definition of a man made diamond is straightforward.  As mentioned above, diamond simulants like Moissanite are actually made from other material and look like diamonds.

The classification of man made diamonds types is only done to those crystals that are everything diamond-like.  Four categories of man made or synthetic diamonds exist: HPHT grit; HPHT large single crystal diamond; CVD polycrystalline diamond and CVD single crystal diamond.

Only two processes produce these four man made diamond types.  Developed by General Electric in 1955, HPHT (high pressure, high temperature) replicates the conditions that nature uses to create a natural diamond.  HPHT also produces another type of man made diamond, the large single crystal.

CVD polycrystalline diamond is number three on the man made diamond types chart.  CVD polycrystalline diamond is grown flat, instead of in the cubic and single crystal form of natural diamonds, in a wafer of up to 5 millimeters thick.

CVD single crystal diamond is the fourth man made diamond type.  In 2005, a former Bell Labs scientist discovered a way to grow CVD single crystal diamonds pure and colorless, just like a natural diamond.  With applications in science, this new development also skyrocketed this fourth man made diamond type into gemstone quality.

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Famous Diamond Mines

Executive Summary about Diamond Mines by Lawrence Reaves

The discovery of diamonds in 1867 in the Cape Colony of South Africa had a profound effect on the world’s supply of diamonds. Scientists learned that diamonds came from volcanoes. South Africa still maintains its position as the major diamond producer but there are other famous mines located in other areas.

In North America the oldest and most famous diamond mine is the Crater of Diamonds. De Beers Consolidated Mines are located in several African countries. The De Beers companies make up about 40% of the world’s diamond production.

The Kimberley Diamond Mines are known worldwide and are located in the town of Kimberley, South Africa. In 1866 Erasmus Jacobs discovered a small stone by the Orange River. It turned out that is stone was a 21.25 carat diamond.

The Williamson Diamond Mine, which is also known as the Mwadui Mine is located in Tanzania. It was the first significant diamond mine outside of South Africa. It is an operating pit mine and mainly produces diamond carats.

The Ekati Diamond Mine is Canada’s first diamond mine. It is only accessible by air except for 10 weeks each year when it can be reached by icy roads.

The Kollur Diamond Mine is located in Guntur District Golkonda, India. The Indian mines were eventually depleted and the diamond center shifted to Brazil where new diamond pipes were discovered.

Famous Diamond Mines

Executive Summary about Diamond Mines by Julie Shields

At the time of this writing there are no commercial diamond mines operating in the U.S. Today, there is one non-commercial (that is, unowned by any private company) diamond mining site in operation in the U.S.: Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. There have been many famous diamond discoveries at this location throughout the decades, including the 40.23 carat Uncle Same diamond discovered at the Park in 1924.

The following are the world’s currently active commercial diamond mine locations: Angola (three mines), Botswana (four), South Africa (eight), Congo (one), Zimbabwe (one), Tanzania (one), Lesotho (one), Russia (five), India (four), Canada (six), Australia (three).

Artisinal mining is also called small-scale mining. This is what is typically used in poor areas and the people who do the mining are called “diamond diggers” who use their hands and very basic tools like shovels and sieves to find diamonds.

Hard rock mining involves creating underground diamond mines featuring “stopes”, or underground rooms that are supported by natural underground pillars.

Marine mining is a relatively new form of diamond mining which hasn’t even been around for 20 years yet. Offshore placer deposits are mined for diamonds; huge drills up to seven meters in diameter are used to drill down into the seabed and suck up the underwater material that contains the diamonds.

Open pit mining is used when the surface material, or “overburden”, that covers the diamond deposits is thin and prospectors find diamonds or what are called kimberlite pipes near or on the surface of an area.

If diamonds are found within alluvial, colluvial, or eluvial secondary deposits, Placer Mining is used for extracting them.

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Cutting Diamond

By Woro Swasti

The rough diamonds from diamond mines are treated in a process called cutting diamond, to convert them into gemstones.

Cutting diamond is an art of changing a diamond from a rough into beautiful faceted gem. This job requires special skill and knowledge. And also specialized tools, equipment, and techniques.

The term ‘diamond cut’ means the shape of the diamond. Examples are round cut, oval cut, princess cut, emerald cut, etc. The diamond cut relates to specific quality of the shape. The more quality of a diamond, more expensive is the diamond, and this greatly based on the cut quality.

Diamond stones are the hardest materials ever found. The stones are very hard to cut, so cutting diamond needs special diamond cutting blades.

The process of cutting diamond includes several steps: planning, cleaving, bruting, polishing, and final inspection.

In the planning process, the rough diamond stone is analyzed to decide how the diamond will be cut. This process include the considerations of maximizing value, weight retention, color retention, and turnaround minimization. All of these process is the most time-consuming part of the cutting.

Cleaving or sawing is the separation process of rough diamond into pieces, each piece will be finished as separate diamond gemstone. This process is using diamond saw or laser for cutting the rough diamond stone.

When two diamonds are set to grind against each other in spinning axles, this will make each diamond shaped round. This process called bruting or girdling.

Polishing process is when the diamond is cut and give facets on the gem. This is also the time consuming process which removes material by gradual erosion.

The last step of cutting diamond is the final inspection. This include cleaning the diamond in acid, and examining the quality of the diamond.

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