Recently, some extremely rare purple diamonds were discovered at the Ekomiak V property in James Bay, Quebec, Canada. A batch of 649 diamonds were harvested in the region, nine of which were purple. The diamonds were recovered from 18 surface rock samples, and are estimated to be about 2.7 billion years old.


Purple Diamond, from Aurora Gems

Purple diamonds, like pink diamonds, are considered to be one of the rarer, fancier colors of diamonds (and therefore one of the most expensive). They are also one of the most desirable of diamond colors. News of the discovery of the purple diamonds was naturally  very well received.

The largest diamond was a colourless fragment, measuring 1.06mm by 0.98 mm by 0.56 mm. All of the purple diamond samples have been associated with samples having high diamond counts.

The new diamond discovery is the largest to date in Quebec. The diamond-bearing Ekomiak Conglomerate extends for four kilometres and up to 500 metres in width. Individual outcrops measure 500 metres by 400 metres in size.

Purple diamonds are created when boron fuses into the crystal structure of the diamond. Over the years, other fancy colored diamonds (apart from purpled hued ones) have been discovered in various parts of the world -- including yellow diamonds, green diamonds, pink diamonds, black diamonds and brown diamonds.

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