Russia — Diamonds, Alexandrite, Demantoid, and Charoite
Russia — Diamonds, Alexandrite, Demantoid, and Charoite
A continental gemstone country dominated by ALROSA and the Ural-Yakutia mineralogical heritage
Russia is one of the world's principal gemstone-producing countries, with a portfolio that includes the largest diamond production by volume in the world, historically important deposits of alexandrite and demantoid garnet in the Urals, the only commercial source of charoite in the Sakha Republic, and significant production of amber, jadeite, malachite, amethyst, and other materials across a continental land area that spans Europe and northern Asia. The country's gemstone trade is dominated commercially by the state-controlled diamond miner ALROSA and historically defined by the nineteenth-century Imperial-period Ural mining tradition that produced the world's first alexandrite and the finest known demantoid garnets.
Diamond production
Russian diamond production is concentrated in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in eastern Siberia, where the Mir, Udachny, Jubilee, and Nyurba kimberlite pipes have been worked since their discovery in the 1950s and 1960s. ALROSA, the state-controlled mining company, accounts for approximately 28–30 percent of global rough diamond supply by carat volume, making Russia the largest single producer worldwide. Russian rough is sold primarily through ALROSA's long-term contract system to manufacturers in India, Belgium, and Israel, with a smaller proportion released through tender. Sanctions imposed since 2022 have complicated the international flow of Russian diamonds, with G7 measures and the Kimberley Process discussions affecting how Russian-origin rough enters the global market.
Alexandrite and demantoid — the Urals
The Ural Mountains, running north-south through European Russia, are the historical type locality for alexandrite, the colour-change variety of chrysoberyl named for Tsar Alexander II at the time of its 1830s discovery in the emerald-bearing schists east of Yekaterinburg. Ural alexandrite remains the benchmark for the species: the colour change from a clear daylight green to a saturated raspberry-red under incandescent light is more pronounced and less compromised by brown overtone than in alexandrite from later sources in Brazil, Sri Lanka, and East Africa. Production is now sporadic, and fine Ural alexandrites command substantial premiums.
The Urals are also the historical source of the finest demantoid garnet, the green andradite variety distinguished by horsetail inclusions of byssolite. Demantoid was a fashionable Imperial-period stone used by Fabergé and other Russian jewellers, and Ural demantoid trades at premium today against the more abundant Namibian and Madagascan production.
Charoite — Sakha
Charoite is a complex potassium-sodium-calcium silicate of lavender to violet colour, found exclusively in the Murun Massif of the Sakha Republic, near the Chara River from which the species is named. Discovered as a distinct mineral in the 1940s and described in the gemmological literature from the 1970s, charoite is used in cabochons, beads, and ornamental carvings, and its swirling fibrous texture and unique colour make it instantly recognisable. The Murun deposit is the only known source of gem-quality charoite anywhere in the world.
Other materials
Russia produces commercial quantities of amber from the Kaliningrad coast on the Baltic — the largest single amber deposit in the world — as well as nephrite jade from eastern Siberia, malachite historically from the Urals, charoite from Sakha, amazonite from the Ilmen and Kola regions, and Imperial-grade amethyst from Siberian deposits associated with the historic 'Siberian colour' grade. Russian gem materials are documented in Gems & Gemology and in the Russian-language gemmological literature, and laboratory origin reports for Russian alexandrite and demantoid are routinely issued by GIA, Gübelin, and SSEF.
In the trade
For dealers, Russian-origin material commands premium where the source is genetically meaningful — Ural alexandrite, Ural demantoid, Sakha charoite — and trades on its merits without an origin premium where the species is more widely distributed. Documentation of origin is increasingly important for both legal and commercial reasons, and reputable laboratory reports addressing both treatment and provenance are standard for any significant Russian-origin coloured stone.