The Mineralogy of Pink Diamonds– Creating a Natural Wonder

Pink diamonds are one of the world’s most treasured natural resources, but simultaneously one of the least understood. Even as these stones set record per carat prices – as high as 3.6 million AUD per carat in the case of a extremely rare red stone from the Argyle mine in Western Australia – gemmologists continue to argue about the specific circumstances that cause a pink diamond to form its signature colour.

At the Australian Pink Diamond Exchange, we’re fascinated by the aesthetic qualities of pink diamonds. We’ve devoted our lives to bringing these truly unique natural wonders to people across Australia and around the globe, and now we want to share some of the theories around the origin of these truly special gems.

How do pink diamonds differ?

Research into how pink diamonds get their signature look is still ongoing, but scientists have some theories as to their origin. A study conducted by the Gemological Institute of America on more than 90,000 pink diamonds found that in more than 99.5% of cases – 199 out of every 200 gems – the colouring of the stone came from a distortion in the crystal structure, as opposed to the inclusion of trace elements. What causes these distortions is still unknown, but some researchers have suggested that the point of origin may have been some kind of intense physical shock, such as the volcanic activity that propelled the diamonds or some unknown event prior to eruption deep in the Earth’s mantle.

These questions are deeply interesting not only to gemmologists, but geographers and anyone with a focus on the physical history of the Earth. Diamonds have been called the messengers of the Earth for good reason – formed billions of years in the past at depths that humanity has never been able to physically reach, diamonds provide crucial information about how our planet was formed and how the deepest, most inhospitable parts of it function.

Own something truly unique

We’ve witnessed the strongest bull market in history from 2009 to 2019, the S&P growing 468%. Stock markets worldwide have followed a similar growth pattern, including the ASX, FTSE and DAX.

But we’ve also learned to expect an economic downturn roughly every ten years. So, the world was overdue for a period of economic shrinkage since the 2008 financial crash. COVID-19 outbreak is the spark which has set the financial world afire, stock markets crashing more than 30% over a period of just weeks.

During such times a diverse investment portfolio can hold its value despite the market volatility. Commodities have been demonstrated to have a strong negative correlation with international equities markets. As such, when stock markets across the globes crash, go-to commodities such as gold, silver and platinum rise in value. However, fear-buying only temporarily affects the price of these commodities. Gold, silver and platinum have all performed similarly during the 2008 crisis, jumping up in value from 2008 to 2011, then falling back to the original value by 2013.