Diamond Trust

If you’re looking to buy a diamond and thought of buying something locally produced in Australia, what are your options?  Unfortunately, your option are limited.  According to Wiki, there are only three diamond mines in Australia and only one has been branded, Arygle.

Argyle diamonds

You’ve probably heard of the Argyle diamond mine which most associate with pink diamonds.  Here are some statistics I found about what kind of loose stones come out of the Kimberley region:

• In 2007, it was the 8th largest producer of rough diamond in carat weight volume
• only 5% of the rough is gem quality (average around the world is 20%)
• 2% are white diamonds
• 1% are pink diamonds
• 80% are brown (yuck!)

Personally, I think pink diamonds are overpriced and overrated.  So are the white diamonds worth it?  I would say not.  Their mine generally produces low quality rough and according to those statistics, they only mine twice as much white as pink diamonds which are stupidly expensive.  I’m not sure you’re going to get much value out of Kimberley diamonds compared to other options open to a diamond buyer.

CanadaMark diamonds

So what’s “plan B”?  Well, where I used to work we stocked CanadaMark diamonds.  I know what you’re thinking, this post is about Australian diamonds, what do Canadian Diamonds have to do with it?  Well, CanadaMark diamonds are mined out of the BHP Biliton owned EKATI Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

And in case you didn’t know, BHP is referred to as The Big Australian.  So my logic is that you’re indirectly buying Australian, that makes sense right?  Just nod and smile..

So what makes EKATI better than Argyle?  In contrast, 80% of production is gem quality and I’ve personally seen at least a hundred of these stones and the average cut and symmetry is impressive.  There are many branded stones out there, but this one seems to be the only one worth buying with an Australian link.

This is above and beyond what a diamond buyer wants to know, but if you want to get into high end jewellery retail or diamond wholesale then it’s certainly a great accreditation to have - or one to ask for if you’re already in the industry.

I haven’t done it myself but many of my co-workers from my previous work had and those keen to learn benefited a lot.  I was “the computer guy” so I got away with not doing it, but of course I picked up a lot about pricing and grading when coding diamond pricing calculators and floating prices with the index.

There’s only one organisation providing education in this field in Australia and it’s the Gemological Association of Australia.  If you click on your state under “GAA State Divisions” you will see pricing and when the courses run.  If you’re only interested in accreditation in diamonds then Diamond Technology is what you want.

If you’re in North America then you can go direct to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and do their Graduate Diamond Diploma.