Diamonds to Die for

The day after I arrived home from my North Tour my family took me on a few more travels one to Ahmanabad to spiritually intiate my host brother’s new apartment flat, and the day following to Surat to take a tour of a diamond factory called Venus Gems. Amazingly Surat produces 80% of the worlds diamonds (not mining, but cutting anyways), and I was lucky enough to visit one of the factories.

Upon arrival to the factory we were brought up to the head office where we had tea and lunch with the owner and one of his businessmen from Belgium; in short we were treated like VIPs. The tour of the diamond factory was pretty amazing, and the technology they use is phenomenal. In the first room we went into tables and tables of men were sitting and examining the diamonds for the quality. At the next group of tables, this time with computers men were using a computer program to see what would be the best cut for each diamond and in the market receive the maximum price.

Working our way to the next room was the first cutting of the diamond to split off the different cuts, and then in a several separate rooms the diamond is cut in more detail. For the major cut a laser is used, but for some of the smaller cuts it is a mix of saw, and then some of laser. Our guide said that by cutting with a saw more of the diamond can be saved than if they always use laser, but using a laser is much faster. For polishing and some small touch ups they use the powder of the diamond, and then in the diamonds final stages it goes through several more check throughs, and also quality tests.

In the final stages of making the diamond my host family enjoyed walking through and admiring the diamonds undergoing their finishing touches. AT one point I was holding a diamond worth $400,000, and with that diamond my host mother put the diamond in between her fingers, and gazed up at my host father. With a look of longing, my host mother’s dream was lost by the laughing of my host father. My favorite part of near the end when I saw them testing the quality by putting them under a black light to check the light reflection of the diamond. One thing that I found truly fascinating about diamonds was that each diamond is unique like a snowflake, and has its own special light reflection. All in all I learned a lot about diamond production, but after watching most of Blood Diamond I will try to stick with crystal.