As some of you know, I really don't like diamonds. There are several reasons for this that I would be happy to share with anyone that asks me; but it seems that I am not alone in this. The price of rubies and sapphires has increased more quickly than the price of diamonds over the last few years indicating a rise in the demand for these precious gemstones.
Ruby and Sapphire are both varieties of a mineral largely made up of aluminium oxide called Corundum. The different colours are caused by different trace elements of Chromium (which gives ruby its red colour) and Iron, Titanium, Magnesium or Copper (which give Sapphires their colour varieties).
Perhaps this change in demand is caused by fashion or by increasing numbers of women choosing their own jewellery (men tend to go for the "safe" option of diamond if they are choosing). Regardless of the reason, the increasing price will lead to more geological exploration to discover new sources of these minerals.
BBC News story
In case you are wondering, my favourite decorative mineral has to be one that has a relatively low price (though it is useful as an ore of copper) but is beautiful with its botryoidal, banded shade of green. Can you find out what it is?
The answe would be Malachite :)
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachite