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Diamond Mining Facts

  • About 1 ton of dirt must be moved to discover one half carat of diamond rough.
  • 80% of diamond rough located is considered "industrial quality" that is, not good enough for jewelry.  It is used for cutting and grinding.
  • It costs $10 million to simply identify a location for a mine and then $1 billion to open it.
  • Fewer than 1% of all mine deposits located in the last 25 years have contained enough rough diamonds to make mining economically viable.

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