Pink Diamonds

Pink diamonds are one of the rarest and most expensive diamonds in the world. A natural pink diamond ring can easily cost well over a million dollars; in 2009 a 5 carat vivid pink sold for $10.8 million at auction!

Even man made pinks can be difficult to come by. For this reason many jewelry designers use other gemstones such as pink sapphire or tourmaline as a centrepiece, often set alongside white diamonds.

What Are Pink Diamonds?

Fancy coloured diamonds result from tiny amounts of impurities in the stone. Different impurities produce different colours - the precise nature of the impurity responsible for a pink colouration is still being researched.

Pink diamonds are graded according to the intensity of their colour and can range from a gentle blush to an intense, deep shade. Vivid pink gem stones are rarer and tend to fetch even higher prices than pale ones.

All forms of jewelry can benefit from a good pink diamond, with rings and pendants being a good way of displaying an impressive stone.

Origins

There are few plaves that can relibly produce pink diamonds. In previous centuries most of the pinks on sale came from the India, Brazil and Tanzania. Today some 90% of the natural pinks on the market originate from the Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia.

Argyle

The Rio Tinto owned Argyle mine produces some 600 million stones a year of which around one tenth of one percent are pink; that's about 600,000 pinks a year. Although this sounds a lot most of them are small fry - the annual production of stones weighing half a carat or more "would fit in the palm of your hand".

The rough Argyle pinks are cut and polished in the company's Perth based facilities then offered for sale to the trade by invitation only tender.

Famous Pink Diamonds

One of the world's largest diamonds is the Darya-ye Noor or "Sea of Light". This 185 carat light pink stone is currently part of the Iranian Crown Jewels and dates back to the 18th or possibly even 17th century.

In modern culture it was the (fictitious) diamond The Pink Panther that originally launched the movie series of the same name.

The popularity of pink diamonds has soared in recent years with a number of celebrity sightings. Kelly Price, Kate Moss and Jennifer Lopez are amongst those spotted wearing pinks. Ben Affleck reportedly gave Jennifer Lopez a six-carat heart-shaped pink diamond ring worth $1.2 million.