Diamonds FAQ

• Tell me more about coloured diamonds
• Are laboratory-created diamonds real diamonds?
• What are gemmological characteristics of diamonds?
• What gemmological laboratories appraise diamonds?

Tell me more about coloured diamonds

Natural coloured diamonds are the most concentrated form of wealth due to their rarity.

Fancy coloured diamonds are found almost everywhere diamonds are mined, but only one in 10,000 carats are fancy coloured. Around 80% of fancy-colours are various intensities of brown. Yellow varieties are rarer followed by pink. Next are intense blue, pure green, pure orange and pure violets; red is the rarest and most precious of all.

Few people have heard of fancy coloured diamonds or appreciate their true beauty. With the abundance of colourless diamonds, almost all advertising is biased towards convincing consumers that this is the only desirable colour. As much as it makes sense to the business, it is also true that diamonds, which are in a very short supply, do not need to be advertised.

Argyle Mine in Western Australia is the largest source of fancy coloured diamonds, yet its main output is colourless diamonds. Argyle Mine has produced about 650 million carats in total since 1985, which is approximately 6500 carats of fancy coloured diamonds per year.

According to some experts, only 6000 carats of laboratory created gem quality fancy coloured diamonds are produced worldwide. This is a drop in the ocean compared to the volume of all natural diamonds offered on the market.