One of the qualities that make the diamond so special is the really unique way of reflecting the light: and the diamond's brightness, fire and sparkling is due to this characteristic. The brightness of a diamond is its capacity of capturing the white light and giving it back to the eye. No other gem has the brightness of a diamond. The fire is the flame of the colours of the rainbow in which the diamond separates the light that goes through it. This quality is also called dispersion, and the diamond has the highest degree of dispersion of all the natural gems. The sparkling is the flashing of lights that emits when we move a diamond, even a if we move it a little bit. A diamond that has a good cut, will capture the light even from the weakest candle. The unique beauty of a diamond - its incredible roundabout of lights- is a characteristic of each stone. The more a diamond is of first choice and the more it will be able to reflect the light, intensifying its beauty and its value. Nothing can compete with the diamond for fire, brightness, sparkling and hardness.

The exact origin of diamonds is still a mistery, even for scientists. Although the diamond is the hardest precious stone existing in nature, its chemical composition is the simpliest. It's pure carbon, like the graphite of a pencil, that has been crystalized millions of years ago, in the centre of the earth, in consequence of enormous pressures and temperatures. Later, the impetuous force of the ancient volcanoes has carried the rock containing the diamonds, through ducts similar to canals, towards the surface of the earth where, todays, diamonds are extracted.

Only 20% of all the diamonds of the world are sufficiently good to be used in jewelry; the rest , for their quality and colour, are only employed for industrial uses. Diamonds are rare and their extraction is very difficult. About 31 tons of earth has to be removed to extract a one carat diamond ( thats a fifth of gram). Moreover the experience of many qualified people is necessary, not only for the complicated operations of extraction, but even for the cutting and the polishing part. And this is why all diamonds are precious and have a very high value. But the greater their characteristics of pureness, of colour and of cut are, the greater their value is.

There are two types of diamantiferous deposits: subterranean mines and alluvial deposits. In the first case diamonds are extracted from the diamantiferous chimneys of the ancient volcanoes, made up of kimberlite, or blue rock. From the origins miners extracted the kimberlite excavating some holes in the surface of the earth. Then the mines in surface ran out and so some conducts were excavated to reach the deepest parts of the chimneys. After having brought the blue rock in surface , it undergoes a complicated treatment of shattering and washing untill it becomes a concentrated residue of diamonds.This then passes through an X ray separator that isolates the diamonds. In the alluvional mines the diamonds are extracted from the river beds or from the shores. Thousands of years ago, a part of the diamonds was projected out of the dimantiferous chimneys and dragged by the rivers to the oceanic shores. Here, the diamond diggers have to built a wall to hold back the waves and remove upto 25 metres of sand to get to the rock below, where they clean the ravines with small brushes and drive out the diamonds from cracks and puddles. Once the diamonds have been separated from the rocks of containment , they are convoyed to the CSO of the De Beers of London. Here every diamond is classified in one of the over 5.000 categories according to its dimension, shape, quality, and colour. Even if the diamonds at this point are still raw, expert classifiers can determine the stones of a certain quality, that show up for their colour and pureness. After they have been classified, the CSO sells them to the main cutters and traders of the greatest centres of cut of the whole world.