Made in China

When you think of diamonds, you tend to think of sparkly rings and earrings, etc. However we rarely think of how that diamond got to our finger or ears. Well, let me tell you, it’s quite the process. 

Diamonds form deep underground under immense temperature and pressure and are then catapulted to the surface via a violent explosion. Hardy little buggers aren’t they? After this colossal explosion the diamonds wait to be discovered. And sometimes they wait a very, very long time. For example, the diamond currently sitting on my finger is hundreds of millions of years old. Hundreds of Millions But that’s not the craziest part, the real humdinger is that my diamond, and many like it, sat for ages without anyone knowing that they were there. You’d think with billions of carats of diamonds just hanging around, people would be starting new mines all the time. 

However, few things in life are that easy. Finding a new deposit of diamonds is exciting, but just because there are diamonds doesn’t mean that they will ever make it out of the ground and into our jewelry boxes. Mining is an expensive proposition and extensive research is conducted before digging ever begins. Multiple samples are taken, and environmental impact studies are run. If a diamond deposit doesn’t look like it will produce high quality stones in an appropriate volume, the deposit will not be mined. This may seem counterproductive but to put it in perspective, to start a mine can take years of work, and cost upwards of a billion dollars. That’s right, a billion dollars, to dig a hole. Ok so it’s a lot more complicated than that, but still, wow. So the caution is understandable. Finding a new, quality site worthy of mining is a really exciting event in the diamond world, and it hasn’t happened in over ten years. 

Photo : Xinhua

So it was thrilling and newsworthy, when officials from Liaoning, a northern province of China, announced that a new mine had been discovered and that it had a projected lifespan of over 30 years. Yes, even diamond mines have expiration dates. There are only so many diamonds per site and when they are gone, they’re gone, 30 years is a huge lifespan for a mine. Yu Wenli, director of Liaoning’s geology and mineral resources bureau described the discovery, telling that the mine was found by an employee in early 2011. Can you just imagine what was going through that guy’s head? If it were me it would be “Oh my God, Oh my God”, on repeat, and then I would probably start running around like a chicken with my head cut off to tell someone. Because I’m cool like that, yep, cool as a cucumber. Anyways, I sure hope that they gave that guy a raise because he stumbled upon a mine that doesn’t just have diamonds; it has a LOT of diamonds, more than a million carats. And all of those carats are worth billions. Not bad for some rocks that were formed over 400 million years ago. But then again, these aren’t your average rocks, or your average diamonds for that matter. Officials are claiming that the diamonds from this mine are more pure than even those found in South Africa. 

So what does all of this mean? Well, we have new hope for the future of diamond mining. Remember, all current mining operations will eventually run out, so it is vital that new discoveries are made. Because I will be highly perturbed if, when I save up my pennies for that 2 carat stone, they tell me that they’re out of diamonds. Secondly, the words “Made in China” have never been truer. And thirdly, I would just like to commend the handwriting of whoever it was the wrote those characters so neatly on the girdle of that diamond pictured above. I don't think I could write Chinese characters that neatly ever, even on a big sheet of paper.