Demantoid is the most expensive kind of garnet and, due to its unique qualities, one of the most beautiful gemstones in the world. The stone’s name can be translated as «the diamond-like», which is actually true: if you look at the stone through the prism, you can see a rainbow play of colours, and its brilliance is comparable even with the diamond’s one.
The demantoid garnet was first discovered in the Ural region of Russia in 1874. At the turn of the XX century it was one of the main Russian gemstones for export. Carl Fabergé, a well-known jeweller, made the demantoid garnet worldwide famous as he often used demantoids in his finest jewellery, and the stone became a symbol of luxury in Tsarist Russia. Nowadays the most valuable demantoid garnet comes only from Russia and only from the Ural region — and, therefore, it is considered to be truly Russian.
Why demantoid is so valued
The demantoid’s high value results from its beauty, rarity and unique features:
Colour
Richness of its shades and the transitions of the green colour — from a pure emerald green to bright golden hues — combined with diamond-like brilliance and dispersion.
Brilliance
The brilliance inside this gemstone increases under artificial lights, making it perfectly suitable for fashioning expensive jewellery for dinner dresses and gala attire.
Horsetails
Fine hair-like ‘horsetail’ inclusions are the most famous internal feature of demantoid, prized by collectors: a well-placed spray gives a stone an individual character and makes it instantly recognisable. Learn more in our guide.
The Korkodin deposit
Since the XIX century two deposits of demantoid have been known: the Bobrovka deposit (the town of Nizhny Tagil) and the Poldnevo deposit (the town of Polevskoy). Due to active extraction, today these deposits are almost completely processed and there are practically no reserves left. In the 1980s a new deposit was found — the Korkodin deposit, famous for its high-quality demantoids. The largest demantoids come to the world market exactly from this deposit; at other deposits of the Ural region the extracted demantoids are smaller and lighter in colour.
The Korkodin deposit is located next to the Korkodin railway station near the town of Verkhniy Ufaley, 100 km south of the city of Yekaterinburg. The deposit consists of two spatially overlapping parts — a hard-rock deposit and an alluvial one — associated with a tectonic zone in contact with the Korkodin ultrabasic massif.
Extraction — Separation — Grading
Demidoff is a miner, not a reseller. Our company is engaged in open-pit mining of demantoid gemstones at the Korkodin mine. We use gentle extraction procedures that do not involve any blasting. Our separation cycle comprises electric-discharge, gravitational and magnetic separation procedures, as well as careful hand picking of every stone.
Gem cutting
The Korkodin deposit’s demantoids are cut exclusively at our in-house cutting facility by expert gem cutters. The cut stones undergo a strict screening and quality control before they reach the market. This full cycle — mine → separation → cutting — is why we can guarantee both the Ural origin and the quality of every stone we offer.
See Ural demantoids for yourself
Browse our demantoid collection — 900+ single stones and matched sets from the Korkodin deposit — or meet us in person at the international gem shows we exhibit at. Questions about buying? See the FAQ or contact us.