Demantoid is the most expensive kind of garnet and, due to its unique qualities, one of the gemstones. 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 colors, 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 Faberge, a well-known jeweler, has made the demantoid garnet worldwide famous as he often used demantoids in his finest jewelry. Demantoid has become 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.
The demontoid’s high value results from its beauty, rarity and unique features:
- Richness of its shades and the transitions of the green color – from a pure emerald green to bright golden hues; diamond-like brilliance and dispersion.
- Brilliance. The brilliance inside this gemstones increases under artificial lights, making it perfectly suitable for fashioning expensive jewelry for dinner dresses and gala attire.
- Horsetails. Thin hair-like inclusions are regarded as one of the diagnostic criteria for natural demontoid. The presence of these fibers inside the gemstone tells you that you are holding a rare and precious jewel.
Ural Demantoid . Korkodin Deposit
Since the XIX century two deposits of demantoid have been known: Bobrovka deposit (the town of Nizhny Tagil) and Poldnevo deposit (the town of Polevskoy). Due to active extraction, today these deposits are almost completely processed and there are no deposits left. In 80s a new deposit was found. Its name is Korkodin deposit that is 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 extracted demantoids are smaller and high light color.
Gemstone deposit:
The Korkodin deposit is located next to the Korkordin railway station near the town of Verkhniy Ufaley, 100km 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 Korkordin ultrabasic massif.
Extraction of gemstone - containing minerals at the Korkordin open-pit mine.
Extraction – Separation – Grading:
Our company is engaged in open-pit mining of demantoid gemstones. 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 hand picking.
Details of the pit’s face and mineral separation plant.
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 for compliance with our demanding requirements. That is why our demantoids are renowned for the high quality of their cut. It is the excellence of the Russian cut, the standard-setting quality and the unique bright green color that make the Ural demantoids more valuable than their counterparts from deposits in other regions.
Korkodin demantoids of the highest grades have an emerald-green color and a gorgeous diamond-like lustre.