Diamonds

What has always surprised me is the emphasis and value we put on diamonds. Though relatively abundant, they are vigorously mined and have been promoted in a tightly controlled market to keep their value high.

- BOB JONES

If asked to name where all the diamonds are, you might mention a noteworthy diamond company, likely De Beers®, the leading diamond marketer. I doubt you would mention the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Yet the Almazny Fond (Diamond Fund) within the walls of the Kremlin is rich in diamonds. It is the State Museum housing gold, platinum, diamonds and royal regalia. It is open to the public but the diamond horde it houses is not.

VISITING THE ALMAZNY FOND

Carol and I spent some time in the Almazny Fond Museum where I hoped to take photos of the exhibit and had a small camera in my pocket when we arrived. The guards took it before we had a chance to go inside. So, all I have is my faulty memory of what was there.

In the middle of the mineral hall was a huge case containing no fewer than 55 large gold nuggets weighing upwards of 100 ounces. There was no crystallized gold, just solid masses of stream-tumbled nuggets. In the same display case were platinum nuggets, again rounded and weighing pounds, not ounces. There were 17 of these, all from Siberia. I did find out it was common practice to use low-yield nuclear blasts to remove overburden to get to the diamond pipes in remote Siberia.

As impressive as this display was, it was the diamond display that really impressed me. It was a glass display case about two meters wide and over a half meter deep. The entire floor of the case was completely covered with large, uncut diamonds so you could not see the cloth surface. What was exciting were the huge faceted diamonds mounted on pins above the diamond “carpet.” These diamonds varied from colorless to smoky, yellow, light brown and subtle colors all approaching the size of ping pong balls.