Russia to dominate global diamond market?

The Russia could soon become dominant force in global diamond market, thanks to a huge Siberian source of diamonds that was formed by an asteroid impact 35 million years ago, a crater located in the Arctic Circle northeast of the most northern Russian city of Norilsk.

Russian sources claim that we are talking here about gigantic deposit of diamonds, containing many trillions of carats. Russian government already announced that they will send an expedition in 2013 to the crater in order to evaluate the profitability and total costs connected with diamond mining at this site.

The quality of these diamonds was already known in 1970s but the source was classified because the former USSR was involved in the production of synthetic diamonds.

Russia is now turning the other page and according to Russian Academician Nikolai Pokhilenko „the first results of research were sufficient to talk about a possible overturn of the entire world market of diamonds'.

These super-hard diamonds will find much better use in different industries such as metalworking, production of efficient semiconductors, space technologies, etc than becoming a part of different jewelry.

Scientists estimate these that these diamond reserves would be enough for the entire world for 3.000 years, and could kickstart another technical revolution.

Read more...

Nanodiamonds lead industrial and technological innovation

Diamonds are already being used by numerous different industries and in the future this number will likely increase even more. The reason for this is very simple, namely supreme physical and chemical properties that diamonds have in comparison with other materials.

This especially refers to nanodiamonds, very tiny diamonds, in size less than ten-thousandths the diameter of a human hair. Many different industries have just started realizing the abundant potential in nanodiamonds, especially in terms of hardness, thermal conductivity and heat resistance.

Nanodiamonds are currently being primarily used as a polishing material, polymer additive and lubricants. Nanodiamonds have been heavily used in aircraft and space travel designs, and they are also the primary ingredient of modern laser equipment.

The recent study by the University of Warwick even showed that laundry detergent laced with nanodiamonds removes fats and dirt at lower temperatures meaning that it could significantly reduce energy consumption of regular high temperature washes.

Many people primarily associate diamonds with expensive jewelry but that is really only a secondary use of diamonds. Only 20% of all mined diamonds are used for jewelry while other 80% are used for different industrial purposes.

The interest toward nanodiamonds continues to grow on worldwide scale and as many technologies continue their maturing process nanodiamonds will further strengthen their place and lead innovation thanks to their unique properties.

Read more...