Diamonds from Kalimantan Webinar (PDF & VIDEO)

Description

This webinar will be conducted by our Institute Founder and Veteran Gemologist, Mr. Tay Thye Sun.

The author would discuss some basics about diamonds, crystal structure, types of diamond and then its formation and occurrence of diamonds around the world.

Not many people know about the existence of diamonds on the island of Borneo, infact, like India, Kalimantan, Borneo island is one of the world oldest sources of fine diamonds. It is found in the alluvial deposit along the Landak river in western Kalimantan, in Linhaisai minette in the headwaters of the Barito river in central Kalimantan, and also in the Banjarmasin-Martapura area of southeastern Kalimantan where rivers drain from the Meratus Mountains into the Danau Seran Swamp. Mining activities date back to 600 AD (Webster, 1987) or longer, fine diamonds such as fancy colours such as blue, pink and canary-yellow have been reported.

The authors visited the mines in the Banjarmasin-Martapura area early March 2002 to study mining and trading activities and then in 2016, the Landak river deposits. They purchased 14 specimens of diamond from Martapura for further study. This paper provides a general outline and description of the diamond morphology and surface features of southeastern Kalimantan diamond. Some spectroscopic features of these diamonds were studied and recorded.