Natural pink diamonds are among the most valuable and rare of Earth’s treasures. Top, vivid-colored stones can bring more than $2M per carat at major auctions. Such prices come from their rarity as much as their beauty – only a tiny percentage of diamonds have a pink color, and only a tiny percentage of these have a rich, vivid color.
Gemologists believe that pinks get their color from deformities in the diamond’s anatomical structure, as pure pink stones show no chemical impurities and are comprised entirely of carbon. When mentioning abnormalities in anatomical structure, gemologists are referring to lattice defects or imperfections that have resulted in the arrangement of the atoms in a crystal from the stone being exposed to immense amounts of stress during its formation.
These internal imperfections essentially cause the light that enters the prism to bend in ways that allow only shades of pink to escape. This further explains how color vibrancy in pink is largely dependent on the source of light shining upon the gem.
Pink diamonds created in a laboratory are quite different from most of their natural counterparts. Manufacturers can’t replicate the way the vast majority of these fancy colored diamonds are formed in nature because we still do not know the actual atomic structure of the defect causing the color.
The price of pink diamonds is highly dependent upon scarcity and demand. The third factor that plays a significant role in the diamond’s overall value is our own predisposition to certain tints and color combinations.
Like any other naturally colored stone, pink diamonds can often feature additional colors mixed with their main hue. These are known as color modifiers and in the case of pink diamonds, the secondary hue is usually purple, orange, or brown.
In addition to color modifiers pink diamonds usually come in different undertones or “tints” based on the geographic region with the most prominent ones being Australia, which offers beautifully saturated vivid pink stones, and South Africa, which offers pink diamonds that usually have bright and “cold” undertones.
The majority of Type IA pink diamonds (diamond containing clusters or aggregates of nitrogen atoms as impurities in the crystal lattice) almost exclusively come from two sources: Australia’s Argyle mine and Russia, which also happen to be the most prolific and consistent producers of such stones. Type IIA pink and other Type IA pink diamonds come from other sources – such as Tanzania, South Africa, and Brazil – but there is no reported regular production from any mine.
Despite the massive output of colored diamonds, pink diamonds count for only 1% of the stones mined in Argyle. The immense scarcity of these precious stones, however, is expected to grow exponentially during the upcoming years because Argyle is the dominant source for highly saturated (colored) pink, purplish-pink, and red diamonds; the decline in the numbers of such stones will be substantial after the mine closes this year. This has been confirmed by an announcement by Rio Tinto, and officially constitutes the Argyle Pink diamonds as potentially finite.
Read more about Pink Diamonds HERE via GIA.
If you are interested in purchasing or selling fancy color diamonds as an investment, please email Rayah Levy at rayah@fcdinvest.diamonds to discuss your personalized long-term luxury investment asset strategy.
Updated 3/12/21
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