Purple Diamonds Found at Ellendale, Australia
August 18, 20
(IDEX Online) - A number of extremely rare purple diamonds have been unearthed at the Ellendale field in Western Australia.
Junior miner India Bore Diamond Holdings found fancy yellow diamonds at a large alluvial deposit, but tests by the Delta Diamond Laboratory, in Perth, revealed that many featured a highly rare and attractive purple fluorescence under ultraviolet light (see picture).
Ellendale fancy yellow diamonds command a premium in the market and are regarded as among the highest quality ni the world.
Fluorescence occurs in about 30 per cent of natural diamonds and more than 95 per cent of these fluoresce blue, with yellow and green representing just a few percent.
"Violet or purple fluorescence is normally associated with blue diamonds, so the fluorescence of these IBDH diamonds is quite unusual", said John Chapman, who is investigating the relationship between the diamonds' spectrographic characteristics and the genesis of the Ellendale signature pure yellow colour.
The so-called The L-Channel of Ellendale, where the purple stones were found, is estimated to contain at least 1.3 million carats of gem quality diamonds, including fancy yellows.