Mid-way through my research project (about February 2014, and before this whole Ebola mess), I watched Martin Rapaport’s persuasive TEDx Speech and other words on the issue of diamonds, and then made a decision:
“I’m looking for a diamond from Sierra Leone”.
“What? So you somehow want a conflict stone now? Unsatisfied with Jezebel.com hating on you the last two three times?” asked a good friend of mine.
“As entertaining and easy as that is, allow me to clarify that…”
The truth is that although Sierra Leone has been at peace for over a decade, they are still desperately trying to shed the stigma left from both the civil war and that damn Leonardo DiCaprio film (which wasn’t even shot in the country).
Frustratingly, Mr. Rapaport’s videos omit the path through which one would go about buying a stone of Sierra Leone or West African origin. I then imagined myself as a modern-day Cecil Rhodes and remembered a story that a rough diamond buyer named Sofus Michelsen told me about his grandfather:
“My Grandfather Sofus Michelsen was a Norwegian and married my Grandmother a Scottish woman. His story was he travelled to Kimberley, South Africa in 1880 where the main supply of rough diamonds were mined, the stone he bought was a 10.30ct rough and had it cut there into a beautiful 4.00ct oval. My wife now wears it as I gave it to her for our engagement after it was passed down from my Grandmother, to my Mother, and now my wife.”
In case you’re wondering, travelling from Norway to Kimberley, South Africa in 1880 was quite a feat: “three months by schooner” he informed me. I am at this point both floored and humbled. “Brad Pitt takes a year to design Angelina’s ring, and this guy’s story involves a three months-long trip by schooner? Well, fuck everybody, then. I’m going to Sierra Leone. How cool would it be to get a picture of me, knees-deep in Tongo mud or chillaxin’ on Tokeh Beach holding the very rough that would be polished into Stephanie’s stone. I just want one “makeable I” rough and I’ll walk it to a polisher myself, Surely one of those rough buyers could spare one from a parcel” I naïvely thought.
My dream was not to be. First of all, no, rough buyers do not have a stone to spare from a parcel. There are two other options, the first of which is the legal (expensive) route, where you pay a rough diamond geologist as a consultant (you didn’t fly all this way to get screwed, did you?), plus expenses (accommodations, security, probably licensing, likely more money to “grease the gears”). One geologist even informs me: “Mr. Schulte, I could spend a half hour writing to you telling you why this is not possible. At $200/hr and a 2 hr minimum, why pay for something I’m telling you for free?” Another rough dealer says he’s working on a parcel from Salone, so maybe we could do business, but probably not because that’s not how it goes, chump. A third rough diamond buyer offers to arrange a 7-day trip, though the costs reveal that this is clearly not the most efficient way to purchase exactly one stone. The second option is the illegal, black market route like these very ballsy gentlemen at Vice did, which I will not be pursuing (particularly given the quality of the stone they ended up with).
Also, should one succeed in buying an artisanally-mined stone, it’s more likely than not that the digger’s find would be massively undervalued by the original buyer, and you exponentially increase the risk of exposure to smuggled stones and other delicacies of the illicit market. Moreover, since I’m not exactly a graduate gemologist with experience in grading rough diamonds (yet!), I could well be buying a diamond that isn’t even a diamond, isn’t cuttable or makeable, or with inclusions that significantly impact its quality as a polished stone. Can’t exactly have that, can we?
Even though the timing didn’t coincide with when I was in the market for a ring, I had tentatively planned to go with Nick Montefour, (fully licensed exporter’s agent) in January of 2015, though obviously the whole Ebola epidemic has sidetracked that sexy option, never mind that the Mrs. is not very keen to the idea, at all.
(I still planning on going once this Ebola mess calms down, and over the expected female objections)
Read More
Got some new reading material from the GIA
Rough Diamonds. A Practical Guide
The book was originally published in 1998. Obviously the information about grading/evaluating rough is still very much relevant and excellent, but there are some very funny now-prophetic passages, for example one part where the author discusses the promise of potential Canadian diamonds, and another part where the author mentions that rough production is growing year-to-year.
Eventually, I’d really like to take the IGI’s rough diamond course and who knows what else after that… maybe not a G.G., but enough to not make a fool out of myself. But for now, this is a good start.
Read More
Marange diamond miners, who have been engaged in open cast operations, last year said they had hit hard rock and that alluvial deposits were thinning out on their allocated concessions. They also said the deep seated conglomerate diamonds were not commercially viable. – See more at: http://www.zimeye.com/zimbabwe-runs-out-of-diamonds/#sthash.Whhzw6Fr.dpuf
This has been long predicted, but is this [finally] the end of the diamonds in Marange? If so, this was truly a national opportunity squandered. Will be interesting to see if the stones they haul out of the ground after the non-insignificant investment in equipment for kimberlite mining is economically viable.
via ZimEye
Read More
Diamonds are so hard to find that explorers have pretty much given up trying.
More than $7 billion has been plowed into the hunt for the gem since 2000, according to top supplier De Beers, and the results have been meager, with no major finds. That’s led producers including BHP Billiton Ltd. to pack up their maps and drills and head for home. The amount spent looking for diamond- rich kimberlite formations underground has dropped by half since 2007, when exploration investment topped $1 billion.
The diamond industry is facing what seems to be a perfect storm from many threats: decreased supply as a result of aging established mines and a lack of major new discoveries, increased demand from India and China, undisclosed synthetics being introduced into the pipeline (and nobody seems to know where they come from, of course). It’s certainly going to be very interesting times ahead.
via Mineweb
Read More
From the archives: Harry Levy of the Gemological Association of Great Britain provides some interesting commentary on diamonds, regulation, traceability of diamonds, and the KP:
Wars occur without the presence of diamonds; it does not follow that if there are diamonds then war will ensue. The rebels themselves say that if there were no diamonds they would use other natural commodities to obtain money. The diamond industry has been maligned for years now as a source of evil and too many people with absolutely no knowledge of the diamond industry and trade have jumped in to try to make our world a better place. There seems to be little equivalent activity to control the oil industry and, more important, the arms industry.
via WFDB
Read More
“The rough diamond course brings practical and relevant education to this gem producing region. By working with Ivorian officials and others in the industry, we can directly support artisanal miners and the development of the diamond sector as a whole. This is an essential step for a country that is now working hard to re-establish and grow the industry following its recent integration into the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme,” said Brad Brooks-Rubin, GIA’s global director of development and beneficiation.
Read More
If you do not want to get scammed, free your mind of greed. Do not believe in miracles in the rough diamond business, and if you don’t know what you are doing, hire someone who does.
When a man with experience, meets a man with money, the man with money gets the experience, and the man with experience gets the money.
via Rough Diamond Geologist
Read More
via Rough Diamond Geologist:
I know the sanctions are imposed to try and affect regime change, but that strategy has been counter-productive. The people I spoke with don’t blame Mr. Mugabe for their suffering and hardship, they blame the West. The banks have a severe liquidity problem and the poor and the average person are the ones who are paying the price for the sanctions. White, black, green or yellow, everyone I spoke to about the sanctions wanted to tell the West that it is they the folks, who are suffering and paying the price.
Read More
via Rough Diamond Geologist:
So… let’s see, maybe I should do a little review here: Not a single fluorescent stone from a country with a high percentage of fluorescent stones.
Not a single Sawable 2 or Makable 1 or 2 in a country that has mostly Sawable 2, Makable 1, and Makable 2.(Sawable and Makable are rough diamond shapes)
Not a single stone was less than 8-9 carats. Yet, the manifest clearly stately the parcel contains stones from 5 carat and above.
Not a single trigon. It is possible for some of the stones to be without trigons, but is it possible to have 200 plus stones without a single commonly seen trigon?
Not a single step growth or step fracture. It is possible to have some stones without the steps, but is it possible to have 200 plus stones without a single step?
I put the parcel down.
Read More