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Among the items on show is this Ginza Tanaka handbag, covered in platinum and diamond studs, retailing for $1.63 million
DEOS Group’s diamond earbuds retail at between $1,200 and $15,000 for a pair

Jwaneng Diamond Mine Jwaneng (meaning “a place of small stones”) is the richest diamond mine in the world when measured by value of recovered diamonds. The Jwaneng Diamond Mine is located in south-central Botswana about 100 miles west of the city of Gaborone, in the Naledi river valley of the Kalahari Desert. The mine began operations in 1982, and is co-owned by De Beers and the Botswanan government under the name ‘Debswana Diamond Company.’ Jwaneng is an open pit mine dug over three kimberlite pipes that converge near the surface. The mine has a very high extraction rate, producing 9.3 million tons of kimberlite ore per year at a ratio of 1.25 carats of diamond per ton. In 2003, the mine produced 14.3 million carats of rough, high-quality diamonds. As of 2005, known reserves will produce at current levels for 27 more years. The Jwaneng mine employs over 2,100 workers. Jwaneng is the first Botswanan to receive ISO 14001 certification for environmental compliance and has maintained a 5 star NOSA safety rating since 1986. The mine has won multiple national and international safety awards since its inception. Botswana is a relatively wealthy African country, and has had one of the fastest per-capita income growth rates in the world. Botswana gained its independence in 1966 and has had strong ties to the economy of South Africa for several decades.

Botswana’s history of diamond mining is commemorated on the 20 and 100 Pula bank notes There are three additional diamond mines of significance in Botswana. The Lethakane Mine (“little reeds”) open pit mine is the second oldest of Botswana’s four mines. The Orapa Mine (“resting place for lions”) open-pit mine is the oldest of Botswana’s mines, located along the ‘Orapa Kimberlite Track,’ near the boarder with Zimbabwe. The Damtshaa Mine (“water for a tortoise”) open pit mine is the other significant mine in Botswana.

It is the ultimate diamond in the rough. And if you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it. A rare and flawless blue diamond has set a record as the most expensive precious jewel of its kind ever sold. The gem, which is 6.04 carats and sparkles with an unusual blue hue, is almost as breathtaking as the price it fetched at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong. It went for an astounding US$7.98 million, or about $US1.32 million per carat.

That easily surpassed the cost of the previous record holder known as “The Hancock Red”, which fetched a “paltry” US$926,000 per carat in 1987.

Blue diamonds are rare but not unheard of and the ones in spectacular condition almost always fetch a huge price. Despite this sale, the most famous remains the Hope Diamond, a 45.52 carat monster that has been owned by everyone from King Louis XIV of France to a rich socialite named Evalyn Walsh McLean. It’s the largest gemstone of its kind ever found and now resides in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

The new record holder for price isn’t quite as large, so how it could manage to reap those sparkling bucks? Experts say it’s all in the quality of the cut and the “fancy vivid blue hue”, a result of trace amounts of an element called boron in its crystal structure. That makes it worth about 10 times what a regular white diamond would bring.

So who owns this incredible piece of jewelry? A company called Moussaieff Jewellers in London, which specializes in acquiring such rare specimens, ponyed up the money after a private Asian collector decided he needed a little – or in this case a lot more – cash.

Which just goes to show you don’t always need yellow to turn a shade of blue into something green.

The Star of Africa, a pear shaped diamond weighing 530.20 carats, aka the Cullinan I. It measures 58.9 × 45.4 × 27.7 mm, and has 76 facets (counting the culet and the table). It is called the Cullinan I because it’s the largest of the 9 large stones cut from the Cullinan Diamond, and the Cullinan II is the massive 317.40-carat cushion shaped diamond in the center-front of the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain. The Crown also features the Black Prince’s Ruby, as well as St. Edward’s Sapphire, and the Stuart Sapphire. All the stones in the crown seem to have a history. The Star of Africa holds the place of 2nd largest cut diamond in the world and is on display with the other Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.

The nine largest pieces of the Cullinan Diamond. The largest piece would of course be cut into the Cullinan I (530.20 carats)
and the the next largest into the Cullinan II (317.40 carats), and so on. This photo was probably taken in 1908, the year
after the Cullinan rough was presented to King Edward VII for his 66th birthday.

Publicity photo of the Cullinan crystal being handed from Fred Wells (right)
to McHardy, who then hands it to Sir Thomas Cullinan (left).

Late one afternoon in 1905, Mr. Frederick Wells, the superintendent of the prolific Premier Mine in South Africa, was making a routine inspection trip through the mine when his attention was attracted by something reflecting the last slanting rays of the setting sun. Curious, he stopped for a closer look. He was eighteen feet below the surface of the earth, and the shiny object was on the steep wall of the mine a few feet above him. Mr. Wells quickly scaled the wall and extracted from the blueground what appeared to be a large diamond crystal. At first, he thought he was being fooled by a large piece of glass, but tests proved it to be the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. It weighed 3106 carats, or about 1⅓ pounds. It was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, who opened the mine and was visiting on that eventful day. Many diamond experts believe that the huge stone was only a fragment, and that another piece, (possibly as large or even larger) either still exists and awaits discovery, or was crushed in the mining process. The latter is very unlikely. The prospect of finding the portion of the Cullinan has added zest to the activities of numerous miners and prospectors. The Cullinan was sold to the Transvaal government, which presented it to King Edward VII on his 66th birthday on November 9th, 1907. It was insured for $1,250,000 when it was sent to England. The King entrusted the cutting of the stone to the famous Asscher’s Diamond Co. in Amsterdam, which had cut the Excelsior and other large gems. The huge diamond was studied for months. On February 10th, 1908, Mr. Asscher placed the steel cleaver’s blade in a previously prepared V-shaped groove and tapped it once with a heavy steel rod. The blade broke, but the diamond remained intact! The second time, it fell apart exactly as planned, and an employee at the factory reported that Mr. Asscher had fainted. A second cleavage in the same direction produced three principal sections; these in turn would produce nine major gems, 96 smaller brilliants, and 9.50 carats of unpolished pieces. The nine larger stones remain either in the British Crown Jewels or in the personal possession of the Royal Family. These historically celebrated gems and their present mountings are as follows: The Cullinan I, also known as the Star of Africa, weighs 530.20 carats. King Edward placed it in the Sovereign’s Royal Sceptre as part of the Crown Jewels, and it is now on display in the tower of London. The Cullinan II is a 317.40 carat cushion cut stone mounted in the band of the Imperial State Crown, it is also in the Tower of London as part of the Crown Jewels. The Cullinan III is a pear-shaped diamond weighing 94.40 carats, and is in the finial of Queen Mary’s Crown and can be worn with the IV as a pendant-brooch. Many of Queen Mary’s portraits show her wearing these two stones, and Elizabeth II makes use of them the same way. The Cullinan IV, a 63.60-carat cushion shape, was originally set in the band of Queen Mary’s crown, but can also be worn as jewelry, as described above. The Cullinan V is a triangular-pear cut weighing 18.80 carats, was originally mounted in a brooch for Queen Mary, to be worn alternately in the circlet of her crown as a replacement for the Koh-i-Noor. This was after the Koh-i-Noor was removed to the new crown that was made for Elizabeth (now the Queen Mother) in 1937.