http://www.original-diamonds.com/edu...e_diamonds.php

These are the browns that come from Australia. Several links on that page
that I didn't explore but after several postings no-one seemed aware of the
Australian browns and the marketing strategy which changed rather common and
not so desirable brown stones into a good profit scheme.

--


Don Thompson

Stolen from Dan: "Just thinking, besides, I watched 2 dogs mating once,
and that makes me an expert. "

There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance.
~Goethe

It is a worthy thing to fight for one's freedom;
it is another sight finer to fight for another man's.
~Mark Twain


"Jman" wrote in message
...
On Feb 26, 9:24 am, Peter W. Rowe
wrote:
On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:12:59 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Jman

wrote:
The amount and quality of diamonds coming out of the
Kimberlite pipes in Alberta and surrounding Provinces are supposed to
be world class, so you WOULD THINK that they would be EASY to find
here...... Not so.... I think DeBeers likely has enough money
invested in these projects that they get first crack at anything
coming out of the ground.

Whether or not DeBeers has anything to do with it is not the point. No
dealer
would sell you a fine gem grade rough cheaply, if, with a bit of effort
on the
part of a cutter, the value could be increased many times. If he'll sell
you
such rough, it will be at a price proportional to it's potential as a cut
stone.
And finding a dealer who'll bother with a retail buyer at all, is your
real
problem. These folks deal in quantities, and large amounts of money. You
can't
walk into the main factory floor at GM, and buy a car. You have to go
through
the dealers who sell the finished goods. Same situation, but made all the
more
so because of concerns with security. The high values mean that they're
very
choosy about whom they'll do business with at all.

I would have assumed that RAW diamond would
have been far less expensive compared to a carefully 'cut and crafted
stone'.

http://www.khulsey.com/jewelry/rough...d_jewelry.html

Note that for the most part, those pretty little cubes that Todd Reed and
others
feature in their work, are NOT cuttable gem grade. That's one reason they
can
find them for sale. And indeed, the prices per carat are Much less than
the
prices per carat for cut stones. But you still have to go through at
least
some semblance of the usual distribution channels. In this case, that
would be
finding a gem and mineral dealer who sells such crystals.

By the way, just because the Canadian mines produce lots of high quality
rough
doesn't mean you'd be able to find lots of these decorative lower quality
goods.
different mines have different characteristics in terms of the type of
crystals
they usually find. While I don't know whether these little cubes are not
common
in the Canadian mines, I do know that the one's I've bought and seen in
the past
have not been Canadian sourced. It's always possible that such rough just
isn't
as common in the Canadian mines...

Peter

You are correct about the Diamond from Canadian Mines. Almost ALL of
the diamonds are basically transparent in color. Very few are even
Yellow. My assumption is that it must have something to do with the
Kimberlite pipes but I'll wait for a reply from the "Diavik" mine in
relation to that question. It seems that the darker it gets, the less
expensive they get...(sort of). I've found A LOT of black diamonds
for less than $100.00 / Carat that were cut and faceted to some
degree...

I am however, still having a tough time finding those Diamonds that
look like the one's in "Todd Reed and others works". It looks like
I'm going to have to keep looking for awhile.

BTW, there are a number of mines in Canada where you can in fact go
'directly to them' to buy gemstones or 'cultivate' your own. BC is a
very popular place for this, along with a couple of Ammolite mines in
Alberta. The prices are of course 'Higher' than that of which a
wholesaler would pay, but never the less, it is possible and the
grades are VERY high. On a side note, I went to a flourite mine in BC
last year and extracted some 'beautiful' pieces of "Bearite" from the
surrounding rocks (they blast small portions of the cliffside away
exposing new rock once or twice a month during the summer..). It's
quite interesting, because you can take with you, as MUCH as you can
carry. The problem is the hike is quite BRUTAL and if you take to
much you aren't going to make it back ! Lot's of fun though...

Cheers,

/FC....