Diamonds in the US
PostBy Avi Paz Group At 25.08.2010
Diamonds are still commonly perceived as an exotic commodity, and few people associate them with North America. Nevertheless, Arkansas was the first place outside South Africa where diamonds were discovered at their original source.
In 1906, farmer John Huddleston discovered two diamonds on his property and subsequently sold his property to a group of investors. The diamonds were concentrated in the surface layer of rock, with yields exceeding 30 carats per 100 tons of mined loads. But once the surface layer was depleted, the diamond presence decreased to only two carats per hundred tons.
After the mining operation shut down, entrepreneurs saw potential for tourism. In 1952, Howard A. Millar opened the Crater of Diamonds hobby prospecting site, where in 1956 a visitor found what became known as the 15.33 carat Star of Arkansas Diamond.
After changing hands a few times, the 80-acre volcanic formation and a surrounding 800 acres were sold to the state of Arkansas, which designated it the Crater of Diamonds State Park – the only publicly owned diamond prospecting site in the world. Visitors pay an entrance fee and are allowed to keep whatever stones they find, regardless of their value. To date, over 25,000 diamonds have been discovered there, including the Kahn Canary Diamond.
In 2004, a microscopic diamond was found in Montana. Eight kimberlite pipes were subsequently identified, and bulk sampling began in 2008.
Diamondiferous kimberlites have also been discovered in Colorado, near the state's border with Wyoming. Kelsey Lake Diamond Mine, the second commercial diamond mining operation in the US after the Arkansas enterprise, operated from 1996-2002. The mine produced approximately 20,000 carats of rough diamonds per year until its owners went bankrupt. The largest stone the mine ever produced was a 28.3 carat yellow diamond, which was cut down to 5.39 carats and eventually sold for $87,500.
The US, while not a diamond-producing nation, remains one of the world's top importers and exporters of rough diamonds. In 2009, US imports totaled 2.35 million carats ($337.5 million) while its rough diamond exports reached 2.4 million carats with a total value of $265.6 million.
