The earliest diamonds were found in India about 800BC, possibly by men searching for gold. The precious metal and diamonds are sometimes found together.

Diamonds...blood has been spilt
for them and legends abound.

Diamonds were seen by Europeans in Indonesia in the 17th century but India continued to be the world's principal source of the gems until the beginning of the 18th century.

Mines in India were almost exhausted when gold miners found diamond crystals in Brazil. The miners, not knowing what the crystals were, used them as chips when playing cards until a savvy official, who had seen "raw" diamonds in India, sent some to Lisbon for checking.

Despite the positive outcome, there were many sceptics who believed the Portuguese, who occupied Brazil, were trying to prop up the country's ailing economy with rumors of diamonds.

There is nothing new under the sun: the same allegations were made in 1866 when South Africa's first diamond find was reported. As it coincided with the near–exhaustion of Brazilian diamond supplies, many thought it was simply too good to be true, with several supposed gem experts saying the first diamond was merely a topaz.

Authentication caused a rush of miners to South Africa but within 10 years, the difficulties for individual miners increased as diggings went ever-deeper with the Kimberley Mine, the world's largest man-made hole.

South African mining became the province of the big mining companies. Competition among them was fierce, especially between De Beers Mines, headed by Cecil Rhodes, and Kimberley Mine¹s Barney Barnato.

Diamonds were subsequently found in other parts of southern and central Africa, with offshore mining on the western coast of South Africa and its neighbor, Namibia.

Significant "new kids" on the diamond scene are Siberia – where diamonds were found in 1954,­ Canada, China and Australia.

Although diamonds had been mined in Australia since the 1860s, it entered the ranks of serious producers in 1985 when the Argyle pipe in Western Australia entered full production, with pink diamonds the cream of its crop.

World Diamond Council figures show that by 1999, Australia was the world's top diamond producer in terms of volume, while South Africa had dropped to fifth place. In dollar terms, Botswana led with more than $US1.6 billion worth of diamonds, Russia was second and South Africa third. The youngsters had quickly come of age.