Why are Pink diamonds unique?
Not all diamonds are white, or more correctly not all diamonds are colorless. Diamonds occur naturally in many different colors. For many years natural color diamonds were not available to the mainstream jewelry consumer. They were the prized possession of a handful of collectors. Today, Suna Bros. brings the allure of Natural color pink diamonds to the American market.
Where do Pink Diamonds Come from?
Suna's natural color pink diamonds come from the Argyle Diamond mine in the remote North West Kimberly region of Australia. The Argyle mine is the world's only commercial source of intensely colored natural pink diamonds.
How Rare are Pink Diamonds?
The Argyle Diamond Mine produces some 40 million carats of diamonds per year. Of this, less than 10,000 carats are pink. We can not overstate the rarity of these stones.
What makes a diamond Pink?
The environment where diamonds are formed contains many natural elements (gases, minerals and movement) which contribute to the diamond's creation. Science has proven that the presence of Nitrogen can create yellow, golden and green stones and that the presence of Boron can create blue-colored stones. However, the explanation for the pink diamond's color remains a mystery.
The cause of the pink color is not yet fully understood, and research is on going with new discoveries being made continuously. Therefore, our explanation below should not be taken as categoric, but only as how we understand it at present:
It is widely accepted that the pink color is caused by a distortion in the diamond's crystal lattice, which is due to intense heat and great pressure from all directions (non-isotropic stress) after the stone's formation in the earth. This distortion displaces many carbon atoms from their normal positions, which alters the qualities of light reflected by the diamond and allows us to observe the stone as pink.
As to why Argyle pinks are more saturated than pink diamonds found elsewhere in the world, it has been found that Argyle pinks possess densely packed graining planes that emanate pink colour (twinning lamination). In contrast, non-Argyle pinks have few and indistinct pink graining and are therefore generally lighter in colour. The pink graining in Argyle stones are sometimes visible to the naked eye.
Are there many shades of Pink Diamonds?
Yes. The pink colors range from spectacular apricot hues through pink to purplish pink and very occasionally red. The rarity of the pink stones increases with the stone's color intensity.
How do Pink Diamonds Compare in Price to White?
As with all diamonds, the more rare the stone, the more valuable the piece. Pink diamonds are priced primarily on the intensity of their color, the stone size and the diamond clarity. It is not unusual for a pink diamond to cost more than ten times the cost of a similar size colorless stone.
