RAW DIAMOND FROM CRATER OF DIAMONDS

[The_Piratess]

I just got back from my annual, rainy season trip to the Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas. Here is a raw, white diamond just under 2 carats that I found. I brought back gravel taken directly from the lamprolite, diamond pipe than runs behind Canary Hill. I hope to find more as I go through it all as it was a great rainy season!

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[Rasputin]

Wow! What a great find! I have been there twice and found nothing. Congratulations.

 

[FFFPatriot]

Very nice! Do you cut and polish the diamonds yourself? An area I mine that is a sliver of an area owned by the railroad that is sandwiched around BLM land is very gold rich. A buddy of mine found a diamond in his sluice box. He took it to get it tested, and sure enough, was a diamond.
The pic enclosed is what I've gotten from previous cleanouts at the same area. I don't know crystal quartz, from sapphires, from diamonds, but I do know that all three run in that area. One of these times, I'll go to the "Museum of Mines" here in Montana, and get them tested.
Picture is on the lid of a medium sized peanut butter jar lid. ( I wish it was a frisbee!)

 

[The_Piratess]

Very nice! Do you cut and polish the diamonds yourself? An area I mine that is a sliver of an area owned by the railroad that is sandwiched around BLM land is very gold rich. A buddy of mine found a diamond in his sluice box. He took it to get it tested, and sure enough, was a diamond.
The pic enclosed is what I've gotten from previous cleanouts at the same area. I don't know crystal quartz, from sapphires, from diamonds, but I do know that all three run in that area. One of these times, I'll go to the "Museum of Mines" here in Montana, and get them tested.
Picture is on the lid of a medium sized peanut butter jar lid. ( I wish it was a frisbee!)

Thanks FFFPatriot. I only know and hunt gems, mostly diamonds. It is very time consuming, stressful and hard to become a diamond cutter (see the pic in my album on my profile of one)! You are so lucky to be living in Montana. There are known, diamond pipes there too and many not geographically plotted yet. Since you pan for gold there, you are getting a double bang for your buck! Many gold panners and miners during the Gold Rush days would find raw diamonds often but since they didn't know what they were and assumed they were just stones or shiny rocks, they would throw them out and/or back in the water. Those diamonds are called placer diamonds and there are plenty to be found.

I can't see your pic real close but some of the smallers ones look like they could be, especially the triangular (macle) shaped one. Here are some ways that you can tell which ones would be good candidates. Diamonds have an oily, slick surface especially when they're wet. Once you've felt one, you'll know that no other stone has that feel to it. They are much heavier than quartz or calcite which are the two that are the most mistaken for diamonds and will gravitate towards the center of your pan. That's why I use sarucas made with rounded bottoms. They repel dirt and water and nothing will adhere to their surface the way that iron oxides or other rocks will stick to quartz and to a much lesser extent calcite. They may contain other gems inside of them usually garnet, peridotite and even smaller diamonds. They are also cool to the touch, but will draw heat into them very quickly. That's how most diamond testers work by testing the thermal conductivity of them. Also look for flecks of graphite inside (little grey to black specks) as diamonds are formed from carbon (not from coal as many believe) that is put under extreme pressure and heat in the volcanic, kimberlite pipes that the kimberlite magma comes up through. However the less you see, the better as those are considered flaws. Diamond cutters can cut around them but the more you have, the more of the stone is lost in the cutting. I would definitely get your stones checked as soon as possible as some looked promising. I hope this helps and HH!

PS - You can also put some vegetable oil in your pan on the outer edges of your screen over a sink with a plugged drain (don't want to lose any) and shake those stones over the oiled part of your screen. Diamonds stick to oil because of their oily surfaces. In industrial, diamond mining they use grease tables which are a series of steps that are greased and shake the concentrates down them and the diamonds stick to the grease. I only wish that I had one of those!

 

[PinchedDreamer]

Very nice find

 

[Eu_citzen]

I tested it with my GemOro Pro-M Diamond/Moissanite Tester. Since you're "gemologists" are you not aware of the fact that crystals do not contain graphite as they are made of silica?

But even they can make mistakes. I've seen both Topaz and the occasional quartz test as diamonds on testers.
Heck, if it scratches a quartz, this discussion is over. And I've held over a dozen diamonds, both from Africa and Australia.

Have you ever heard of crystal inclusions, or grain lines in diamonds? Do you realize that the soil is regularly plowed at the Crater of Diamonds and while diamonds are the hardest gemstones they can still crack, break and be scratched by the numerous blades on a commercial sized plow? Did you also know that diamonds are one of the most difficult things to photograph? Oh and would you care to post your certification in Gemology since you state that you are one in your signature? I'd love to see where you attended school at.

I have. So you're saying those are inclusions?
Granted, it's a picture, We simply saw something odd and pointed that out.
I do know diamonds are hard to photograph, actually all gems are. Diamonds are not the exception, but the rule.

And I have never claimed to be a gemologist. I played in a gemology lab for 4 months alongside gemologists. But that's all.
I was even allowed to try and grade half a dozen of cut diamonds, they taught me "how to" identify gems.

Never claimed to be anything, my signature line is a joke. A joke among nerds.

 

[Ammoman]

Congrats on the find! The only diamonds i have ever found were already mounted on a ring. I did go to a place here in NC once. I think it was called Hiddenite. I drank the cool aid for a day and had a great time with my kids. That said i have lots of Moissanite stashed away. I used to work at Cree Research back in the 90s. (I worked in the Crystal growth room) About twice a year C3, now called Charles and colvert would come on site and give us employees great deals on cut Moissanite. My favorites were the Green stones.

 

[FFFPatriot]

Thanks for the great info you've given here, TreaSureQueen! I'll try the vegetable oil on them in a few days.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Very nice! Do you cut and polish the diamonds yourself? An area I mine that is a sliver of an area owned by the railroad that is sandwiched around BLM land is very gold rich. A buddy of mine found a diamond in his sluice box. He took it to get it tested, and sure enough, was a diamond.
The pic enclosed is what I've gotten from previous cleanouts at the same area. I don't know crystal quartz, from sapphires, from diamonds, but I do know that all three run in that area. One of these times, I'll go to the "Museum of Mines" here in Montana, and get them tested.
Picture is on the lid of a medium sized peanut butter jar lid. ( I wish it was a frisbee!)

One simple trick is to get a hardness testing kit. Diamonds are the hardest of them all. Neither will scratch diamond, but diamond will scratch all.
Sapphire will scratch quartz. I also think I see some garnets in there. They are often reddish and heavy, being found near the blacksands during panning.

Further more, diamonds are made of coal. (chemically speaking, graphite is coal to)
Kimberlite pipes only are a means of "transport" for the diamonds to get to the surface, they are not formed inside kimberlite pipes.
If you are finding garnets, they often come right along those kimberlite pipes to, and serve as an indicator mineral for diamonds.

There are more indicator minerals, of course, such as chrome diopside. Dan Hausel has/had some excellent write-ups on the subject.

As for sapphires in Montana, they often have retained some of their crystal shape. Often have a flattish tabular shape.
Often have a matte look when dry, due to transport in rivers, finding sapphires in host rock is rare, to say the least! (in regards to Montana)

 

[BIGSCOTT]

Diamonds are pure carbon, most are formed from the heating and compression of Co2 gas.

 

[BIGSCOTT]

I have a 10 or 11 point brown that is broken it has strirations like that, I also have 63, or 67 point green
that has 3 little specks of carbon in the middle of it.

 

[ecmjamsit]

Diamond testers work on the transmission of heat. Thermal energy is created and then sensed. If enough thermal energy is transmitted to the sensor, the diamond test good. The diamond tester is an electronic device. Same as my metal detector. If my metal detector signals metal under it, I tend to believe it. It is rarely wrong, if ever. Let me know if you are in the area TreaSureQueen, and I will show you where you might find some diamonds. Then you can teach me how to dig them! I have a claim on the Arkansas river and have seen a one nice 1 carat white come out of the river.

 

[FFFPatriot]

Thanks EU_Citzen. Friend of mine has one. Next time I see him, I'll get him to test them for me.

 

[The_Piratess]

Diamonds are pure carbon, most are formed from the heating and compression of Co2 gas.

Hi BIGSCOTT. Yes you are absolutely right. It forms both diamonds and graphite which can sometimes be seen in diamonds. People often say that the black or grey flecks in diamonds are carbon, but they are actually graphite which is carbon formed with a different, atomic structure than a diamond. Sorry I was up all night last night and not my usually cheery self. Thanks!

 

[The_Piratess]

Diamond testers work on the transmission of heat. Thermal energy is created and then sensed. If enough thermal energy is transmitted to the sensor, the diamond test good. The diamond tester is an electronic device. Same as my metal detector. If my metal detector signals metal under it, I tend to believe it. It is rarely wrong, if ever. Let me know if you are in the area TreaSureQueen, and I will show you where you might find some diamonds. Then you can teach me how to dig them! I have a claim on the Arkansas river and have seen a one nice 1 carat white come out of the river.

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Thank you. I prefer testing by thermal energy as opposed to the hardness test using the Mohs scale. I think it is more accurate with less room for error and much easier and far quicker especially when you're in the field. Which area Colorado, Arkansas or both? Lol! Is that a pic of the Arkansas river? I like the color of that green soil by its banks! I actually prefer looking for placer diamonds in water. It's way easier, cooler in temperatures and I developed a few tools of my own just for that.

 

[ARC]

Make sure that when testing you use the supplied metal tray and make a good solid contact.

IF the "line" moves moderately fast to signal,,, this signifies that it is a natural stone.

IF the line moves FAST... diamond.

 

[Eu_citzen]

If you'd like to do a comparison of a metal detector and a Diamond tester the comparison of the detectors discrimination is more apt for the task.
We all know large iron can wrap around the VDI range, for example. Large coppers can give a similar reading as small silver coins, etc.
Simply put, there's room for error. Enough to double check results.

If it is used as a field test, that I can buy. I also tend to bring all unusual rocks with me home for proper ID later.

 

[The_Piratess]

If you'd like to do a comparison of a metal detector and a Diamond tester the comparison of the detectors discrimination is more apt for the task.
We all know large iron can wrap around the VDI range, for example. Large coppers can give a similar reading as small silver coins, etc.
Simply put, there's room for error. Enough to double check results.

If it is used as a field test, that I can buy. I also tend to bring all unusual rocks with me home for proper ID later.

I use my jeweler who is a certified gemologist and lapidary with 45+ years experience as I also deal in and collect antique jewelry. He is a third generation jeweler who still runs his family's store open since the late 1800's. He also makes my custom mounts and jewelry.

 

[Eu_citzen]

I use my jeweler who is a certified gemologist and lapidary with 45+ years experience as I also deal in and collect antique jewelry. He is a third generation jeweler who still runs his family's store open since the late 1800's. He also makes my custom mounts and jewelry.

And he confirmed it? Hey - then it's a cool find!
Do you collect rough diamonds or do you have them cut?

BIGGSCOTT,
Diamonds don't technically have striations. Compare to quartz.
While it looks similar, I believe diamonds show a different mineralogical phenomena. Don't recall the name now, however.

 

[DDancer]

A good find then. Mayhap the shape and striations are due to some twinning? The luster due to it being fairly fresh? I am not nay saying anything, just trying to understand what I'm looking at. Personally if I had found it I'd have just considered it a quartz crystal but considering the source and recovery method I reckon I'd question it. Maybe.
I have not found any pictures on line for finds from Crater of Diamonds that come to be similar to your specimen however a stone in the hand is easier than a picture on the net. Congrate's I reckon.