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Article Index- Chrome Diopside Market Report
Chrome Diopside Market Report
Published: August 2011
by Choi Asawapongpanich, Shawn O’Sullivan & Britlee Moates, JTV® Buyers
Chrome diopside mining takes place for only 2 to 3 months per year. This usually happens during the summer months beginning in June and ending in August. Below you will find the state of the chrome diopside market as of August 2011.
Today's Marketplace
In today’s chrome diopside marketplace, cutting factories interested in buying chrome diopside must often buy the entire mine run. Since the factories are not able to pick-and-choose only the finest quality rough, chrome diopside being seen on the market today is lower in quality than has been seen in the past. That is, the material is more included and the gemstones are darker green to yellowish in color. At the Las Vegas trade show in early June 2011, several included gems were seen but the fine quality chrome diopside gems were nowhere to be found!
In the past few years, all major cutting factories in northern China have converted from cutting peridot to cutting chrome diopside. This has created a huge demand for facet-grade material which has driven rough prices up in the past few months. Vendors can no longer guarantee chrome diopside product of the same quality, quantity and size as has been seen in the past.
Larger Chrome Diopside Gemstones
Consumers are always on the look out for larger chrome diopside gems. It takes months to collect enough rough that is big enough to provide larger chrome diopside stone sizes. One of JTV®'s chrome diopside vendors recently bought over one hundred pounds of rough that will be used to produce stones that are 10x8mm in size and up. Large cut chrome diopside stones are rare, and only 3% of the original rough will yield these larger sizes. Smaller sizes of chrome diopside are still available in the market but large chrome diopside stones of good quality are in short supply.
Right now, JTV® is focusing on large chrome diopside sizes in good quality. No small stones on our shopping list currently!
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