Ballas
Appearance
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Diamond-33187.jpg/220px-Diamond-33187.jpg)
Ballas (or shot bort) is a diamond industry term for roughly spherical shards of non-gem-grade diamond, mostly mined in Brazil and South Africa.[1]
A ballas is an aggregate of diamond grains concentrically arranged with radiating structure into a roughly spherical stone with a fibrous texture and without throughgoing cleavage planes. Tougher and more difficult to cleave than crystalline stones, ballas are used as industrial diamonds.
References
[edit]- ^ industrial diamond. Encyclopædia Britannica