Secret world of mega-diamonds: Inside Antwerp's hidden cutting labs
Hidden in Antwerpʼs secure district expert cutters work on baseball-sized diamonds worth millions. Modern tech and age-old skills mix to transform rough stones into perfect gems
In Antwerps diamond-district a high-tech lab sits next to a train-station where Eric (a master-cutter whose last name is kept private) works with a huge rough diamond. The three-street area protected by lots of cameras and police sees hundreds-of-millions in gems move daily
The facility belongs to HB Antwerp which got this 782-carat stone last fall. Their tech-savvy team plans to make about 35 gems from it: three matching 100-carat stones (each like four grapes in weight); two pairs of smaller ones and lots of tiny gems. The company got this rock from their partner Lucara Diamond Corp which finds big stones in its Botswana mine
Natural diamonds come from deep underground – like 500km below us; hot magma brings them up. William Lamb who runs Lucara puts it simple:
Its the miners job to bring the diamond into the light and the polishers job to bring the light into the diamond
The most famous case happened bout 120 years ago when Joseph Asscher got the huge Cullinan diamond. He spent almost a year studying it made special tools and (after drinking some champagne) needed two tries to split it. The result was nine big stones that went to British Crown Jewels
Today its all about tech in Antwerp. Companies like HB and Diamcad use special software lasers and 3D scanning to work on huge stones. They make digital copies check for problems inside and plan cuts using computer math. Still its dangerous work – one wrong move and millions turn to dust
