Park visitor finds 5.47 carat bright yellow flawless diamond!!!

[kucinta]

Holy cow!

Check out this article on CNN!

I think I first read about the Crater of Diamonds state park here on PS. Now I wanna go!

 

[Allisonfaye]

Date: 10/21/2006 7:55:13 PM
Author:kucinta

Holy cow!

Check out this article on CNN!

I think I first read about the Crater of Diamonds state park here on PS. Now I wanna go!

I am right there with you!

 

[perry]

This is the third or 4th sizable diamond found in the last year or so at this park.

Makes you wonder if they have gotten into a higher diamond producing grade of kimberlite?

Anyway - I''m sure that lots of people will frequent the park if this keep up.

Maybee my next summer vacation.

Perry

 

[poptart]

Wowee! I guess I know exactly where DH and I are going next summer... a little trip into diamond country, haha. I had never heard of that park before, that''s awesome!

Marisa

 

[turtledazzle]

I just read this on CNN and was going to post -- but checked first and, of course, PS already has the story. Hmmm, wonder was diamond(s) will come from this magnificent find?

 

[Jelly]

HOLY SMOKES! I''ll see y''all in arkansas!

 

[CrownJewel]

I read that article this morning too, and I thought the same thing...hmmm...I want to go to Arkansas too!!! We should organize a PS field trip. It''ll be an "educational" trip.

 

[innerkitten]

Yes someone did post here about a diamond found I think at that same park.

 

[Mara]

hehe i so have no interest in this park thing...i think it's funny (in a cute way!) how many people get jazzed about it. sure like 5 people this year have found nicely sized diamonds but after the rough is cut, it may be 1c or less depending on shape. if you live nowhere near arkansas, then just the trip costs, taking time off work, and then the physical work and all that would far surpass the cost for the potential of finding something worthwhile. then again i was never much of a gambler or a risk taker...i just like vegas for the good food and shows!

i almost wonder if they are planting some rough just to keep the press going on and yes as someone said, incenting more people to want to visit next year. they do charge you for the tools and all that! hehe. gotta turn a profit at some point.

 

[kucinta]

LOL Mara!! After my first breathless excited post above I actually went to the park''s website and checked it out - after seeing the pictures of people digging through something like 37 acres of dirt... and realizing that on average only two diamonds are found a day, PLUS like what you said, even the 3+ carat rocks get cut down to something like 1 ct, I''m like, forget it! Ahahah... still, one can dream about unearthing some gigantic 10 ct monster on your first basket of earth or whatever it is they use to sieve through the dirt!

 

[FireGoddess]

If I''m ever in the area (or somewhere not too far)...I''m definitely going to try my hand at finding something.

 

[CaptAubrey]

The Crater of Diamonds is definitely a curiosity, both historically and geologically. It''s actually a lamproite (not kimberlite) like the Argyle deposit in Australia, and like Argyle, the vast majority of diamonds it turns up are poor quality.

The funny thing about this deposit is that no one has really been able to decide the actual ore grade, which is to say, how many diamonds are in the average bucketload of dirt. The state of Arkansas conducted a bulk-sampling project a few years back that was rife with accusations (between the state and the mining companies involved) of corruption, malfeasance and incompetence. And the final results indicated an extremely low ore grade... one that, oddly, was well below what was known (not estimated) to have come out from the tourist diggings, which means something, somewhere, was off.

De Beers has been accused a number of times over the years of trying to "kill" the place as an active mine, which doesn''t make much sense (when they might have cared--pre-Canada--they could have afforded to simply buy up all the diamonds to get them off the market).

National Geographic did a short piece on the mine about five years as part of an article on diamonds. Apparently the most successful local digger has, over the years, recovered just about enough diamonds to pay for his tool costs and the cost of gas back and forth from his house.

A few people have gotten very lucky--the 40-carat Uncle Sam, the largest diamond ever found in the US was unearthed there--but its much like buying a lottery ticket, except you get a lot muddier.