Scientists have known about the presence of diamonds in space since the 1980s when meteorites hitting Earth were revealed to contain lots of nanometer sized diamonds. Based on these studies, calculations have shown that a gram of space dust from a cosmic cloud might contain as many as 10,000 trillion nano-diamonds. These have only recently been identified because their infrared signature has only recently been identifiable using computer modeling and Spitzer’s infrared spectrometer.
These space diamonds are formed very differently that our Earth bound diamonds. On Earth, stones that are destined for engagement rings and wedding rings are formed under high heat and high pressure. In space, these nano-diamonds are found in molecular clouds where temperatures are below minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures are billions of times lower than on Earth.
Understanding how these nano-diamonds form may lead us to understand more about the formation carbon-rich molecules, the basic building blocks of life on Earth.
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London—Platinum's price reached a record high for the second day in London, trading above $2,000 an ounce, reports Bloomberg News.
Platinum for immediate delivery in London gained as much as $50, or 2.5 percent, to $2,027.50 an ounce, according to the news source.
The escalated price is due to power cuts in South Africa, which accounts for almost 80 percent of global platinum output.
The world's second-largest platinum producer, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., forecasted a drop in its platinum output due to the power shortages, which could be as much as 40,000 ounces of production, roughly equal to more than two days of global supply.
South Africa's state-run utility Eskom Holdings Ltd. told Bloomberg News it will retain limits on power supply to users such as mines and smelters to 90 percent of normal needs until 2012.
In related news, gold for immediate delivery in London increased 0.2 percent to $908.68 an ounce, according to the news source. The metal's price reached a record high on Feb. 1 at $936.92.
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The Letseng mine, which is 70 percent owned by Gem Diamonds and 30 percent owned by the Lesotho government, has now produced three of the world’s 20 biggest diamonds, including the Lesotho Promise, which Gem Diamonds found in August 2006.
That stone was auctioned in Antwerp in October 2006 for $12.4 million, and is the 15th largest rough diamond in the world, while the Lesotho Brown diamond, which was found at the Letšeng Mine in 1961, was the 16th largest.
The mine also produced a 215-carat D-flawless diamond in January 2007, which was auctioned for $8.3 million.
The Letseng Mine has two kimberlites with a combined estimated diamond resource value of $4.7 billion. The average price per carat of stones found in the “Letseng Satellite Pipe” was $1,894, and at the “Main Pipe” it was $1,128. This compares with the world average price of approximately $81 per carat.
In its report for the first half of 2007, Gem Diamonds noted that it had its IPO on the London Stock Exchange in February, raising $635 million, and since then has acquired the Gope deposit in Botswana for $34 million, BDI Mining in Indonesia for $80.1 million and has made a $263 million offer for Australia’s Kimberley Diamond Company. Operating profits for the period were $16.8 million on revenue of $69.8 million, and the Letseng Mine continues to produce ahead of plan, with a second plant scheduled for commissioning in early 2008.
A service of the Antwerp Facets News Service (AFNS)
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Gary Dunlap of Jefferson named the diamond he found the Star of Thelma to honor his wife of more than 10 years. Dunlap's find was the fourth-largest diamond found in 2006 at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. In all, 486 diamonds have been found at the park this year.
Dunlap found the gem Sunday while looking near a Bois d'Arc tree on the park's 37.5-acre search field. He said he felt certain the shiny stone was a diamond when he picked it up off the ground. Dunlap has visited the park about a dozen times but this was his first diamond find.
In March, a state trooper from Nowata, Okla., unearthed the 4.21 yellow Okie Dokie Diamond. In September, a Point, Texas, couple found the 6.35-carat brown Roden Diamond. The following month, a visitor from Ripon, Wis., found the 5.47-carat yellow Sunshine Diamond.
The largest of the 25,000 diamonds found at the park since it became a state park in 1972 is the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight. A visitor from Texas found the white diamond in 1975.
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The closure leaves the three functioning diamond mines, Ekati and Diavik in the Northwest Territories and Jericho in Nunavut, short of fuel, equipment and mining explosives until next winter or unless the mine operators decide to fly in supplies at high cost. De Beers Canada’s Snap Lake mine in the Northwest Territories, which is supposed to open in 2007, will also be affected.
Aber Diamond, which owns a 40 percent stake in Diavik, said that the mine has 44 million liters of fuel, enough to keep it going for 10 to 11 months, and that most supplies that could not be moved by air were already at the mine. Meanwhile, Tahera Diamond Corp. still expects to reach full production at Jericho in April despite the road closure, CEO Peter Gillin told the wire service. The company has received 60 percent of its supplies and has 6 million liters of fuel on site, but Gillin admitted there will be increased costs, scaled-back development plans and cutbacks on pit construction, pre-stripping and runway extensions. Flying in supplies would cost C$3 million (U.S.$2.6 million) if Tahera decides to do so.
Pierre LeBlanc of Canadian Diamond Consulting told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the road closure would not hurt the mines too badly, since most of the large equipment that would have had to be transported by truck had already arrived. He acknowledged that flying in the remaining supplies would be costlier. BHP Billiton, which owns an 80 percent stake in Ekati, also controls part of the road joint venture.
Reports in the New York Times indicate that Arctic sea ice is decreasing, indicative of a long-term warming trend most climatologists attribute to a manmade greenhouse effect.
A service of the Antwerp Facets News Service (AFNS). Article may be reproduced provided that credit is given to AFNS.
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Zambia’s Western Province borders on Angola, and Spirit of the River President Dave Schaffer pointed out in an interview with the newspaper that rivers tend to flow from Angola into Zambia, presumably bringing diamonds with them that could be buried deep under the river sediments, where they can best be reached with dredging technology like his firm’s. Feasibility studies have already been carried out on the Barotse River floodplain, using hovercraft.
Schaffer said full-scale mining will start in January, with about 60 local people already employed. His company has invested $3.5 million (U.S.) in the venture, including $1.5 million for “aqua-mining” equipment from South Africa. The focus of attention is areas like Kalabo and Shangombo, near the Angolan border.
Spirit of the River has been in business for 18 years, including eight years mining sapphire in Madagascar. Schaffer said his firm’s technology is environmentally friendly.
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According to Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Pavlo Igantenko, the quality of the diamonds was the same as those produced by South Africa and Russia.
While Ukraine has not yet been a major source of rough diamonds, it has for a long time been home to diamond cutting sector.
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Park Superintendent Tom Stolarz said about 25 one-carat-plus stones are found in the park each year, but the quality of Lee’s find is unusual. It may be worth more than $1,000.
Lee, who has also found stones weighing 6 carats, 4.7 carats, and a few weighing 2 carats at the park, said he will give his new find to his mother.
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