synthetic diamonds

[mike04456]

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On 1/29/2004 10:34:32 AM Griffin wrote:





Isn't the US Government still pissed at them over a number of things including espionage and sabotage of American programs during WWII, stuff with the Nazis, etc?
I know they were formed from Cecil Rhodes genocidal rampage through Africa in the first place. That was both criminal, brutal, and organized - an auspicious start.
'Mob' seems accurate.
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During WWII, De Beers and the US government got into a big spat over alleged price-fixing for industrial diamonds. This dispute has been running off and on since then. But it's an anti-trust issue, not an espionage issue. De Beers is barred from doing business in the US as the result of a consent decree during the 1970s. They are currently trying to settle this thing once and for all, but it's anyone's guess whether they will succeed--too many things they do violate US anti-trust laws.

Cecil Rhodes was certainly no saint, and he had something of the megalomaniac in him, but he had a lot of irons in the fire, only one of which was De Beers. His colonial rampaging was really an attempt to set up a British-dominated empire in southern Africa--it had little or nothing to do with diamonds except to the extent that he used his profits from diamond-mining to fund some of it. De Beers, which was founded in 1888, already existed when Rhodes went on his rampages in the 1890s. And while Rhodes is commmonly described as having founded De Beers, this is not quite true. He was the chairman, but was only one of a group of diamond miners who joined together to control the market. There were a number of others, such as Barney Barnato, who had been more successful at it than he was. Rhodes never controlled the whole thing or even 50% of it, and his partners were not wild about his penchant for adventurism.

 

[Nicrez]

LawGem, let me just sit in awe of all the things you know...*sitting in awe* ok, that was interesting. Thanks. Love reading your input. Any good recommendations on reading up on Diamonds?

 

[mike04456]

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On 1/29/2004 12:37:39 PM Nicrez wrote:





LawGem, let me just sit in awe of all the things you know...*sitting in awe* ok, that was interesting. Thanks. Love reading your input. Any good recommendations on reading up on Diamonds?
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Well, I've done a lot of reading.

Rhodes is a fascinating character, one of those larger-than-life figures who's such a collection of enormous talent and enormous faults that it's impossible to really pass judgement on him.

I would concur with Gary's suggestions. Harlow's book is a great place to start, and Krajick's is a wonderful history of diamonds in Canada. Bruton is pretty technical in spots, but useful once you have a good background. Stay away from Cuellar--he is, among other things, a convicted felon and his information is more likely to be dangerous than useful.

 

[dmpineapple]

If I can recall correctly, I believe that type 1 brown diamonds can be changed to yellow or green, and are quite common diamonds to get. Type 2 brown, can become colorless or near colorless, but are very hard to get, because only 1% or 2% of the entire market of diamonds fall into this catagory. Rare, type 2a diamonds can become pink, and type 2b diamonds can change to blue. So, it is not true that it is as easy to make the colorless diamonds as it is some of the other colors, however, my information may be "old"...new techniques just keep popping up...