Officials of Directorate of Geology and Mining, Nagaland, Dimapur led by Abenthung Lotha, Geologist along with Angh, Village Chairman, Council Members of Wanching Village and Dobashi of Wakching Sub-division.
Govt experts clarify on occurrence of ‘diamond crystals’
Mon, December 1 (MExN): Following reports of occurrence of ‘diamond crystals’ in Wanching Village under Mon District, the Directorate of Geology and Mining (DGM), Nagaland, had deputed four Geologists AbenthungLotha, Longrikaba, KenyeloRengma and David Lhoupenyi to investigate the same on November 26. The DGM officials undertook the assignment on November 27.
On December 1, the DGM issued a statement presenting the observations of the geologists regarding the crystals.
Occurring at the coordinates N26˚40'53.40"N Latitudes and E094˚49'58.14"E Longitudes, about 3.5 km NW of Wanching village, the crystals were established to be quartz and not diamond as speculated.
According to the experts, the said mineral crystals found in Wanching village occur in the veins/fractures of sedimentary rocks of Disang-Barail groups. It is spread over a shallow depth and may be formed due to silicification of crystals along the fractures of Sedimentary rocks formed at few kilometres depth and less than 100 million of years.
However, in the case of diamond, crystals are formed in igneous rocks known as Kimberlite and Lamproites. They are formed under extremely high pressure and temperature, at a depth ranging from 150km and 250km and is older than a billion years.
Therefore, diamond crystals of that size speculated in social media cannot occur or be found in sedimentary rocks, except in rare cases of transportation by natural agents as fine grains or micro-diamonds.
They also added that the said mineral crystals belong to trigonal crystal system. Some crystals have partly six sided shape and some have six-sided prism terminating at one end. Their hardness is 7 in Mohs scale. Whereas, diamond crystals have cubic structure system and is the hardest mineral having 10 in Mohs scale.
From the above observations, the team has identified the said mineral crystals as quartz crystals which are found abundantly in the sedimentary rocks of Nagaland along veins, fractures, faults etc.
The gem quality of quartz crystals are determined from its optical and physical properties such as refractive index, colour hardness etc, they added.
Further, the high price supposed to have been paid for the said minerals by some buyers cannot be the basis for determining them to be diamond crystals, they clarified.
“Though the clear and transparent quartz crystals in the present market are sold at about Rs. 1000 -2500 per kilogram, the clear-transparent quartz crystal carries its value not as gems and other commercial productions like glass, refractory industry, etc but also as therapeutic treatment and religious practices,” a statement from the DGM added.
The DGM, Nagaland reminded the public not to be driven away by wrong illusion that such large diamond crystals could be found in the Sedimentary rocks like shale and sandstone of Nagaland in their natural state.
