Zurich geologists facilitate the search for diamonds
Published: Thursday, Feb 8th 2024, 11:50
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A new finding by Swiss researchers could make the search for diamonds easier. They discovered that the composition of the mineral olivine in stones can provide information on whether they contain diamonds or not.
Olivine consists of different proportions of magnesium and iron, as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) explained in a press release on Thursday.
Geologists from ETH Zurich, together with colleagues from the University of Melbourne, have now discovered that the content of magnesium and iron in the mineral olivine shows how likely diamonds are to occur in a rock sample. The more magnesium, the more likely diamonds are to be present. The researchers published these findings in the journal "Nature Communications".
"A needle in a haystack"
The determination using olivine is much faster than the previous detection methods, according to ETH Zurich. The first companies are already using the new method.
According to ETH geologist Andrea Giuliani, the search for diamonds is a difficult process. This is because diamonds can only be found where the grayish to black rock kimberlite is present. "Just looking for a kimberlite is like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Giuliani, according to the press release. "Once you have found this rock, the complex diamond search really begins."
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