Why Diamonds are so Expensive?
The price of diamonds are kept at a high price as those mining them (De Beers and the likes) keep a tight grip on the amount of supply that actually goes out. I’ve heard of them torching large stockpiles of their own diamonds to keep them from reaching the market and lowering the price of them. Diamonds aren’t rare as you can find them around any place that had carbon deposits (graphite, for example) deep in the ground that a hot spot or other volcanic activity brought magma in very close proximity to it. It just so happens the deposits in Africa are easy to mine thanks to uplift and erosion bringing them up to the surface. Also, there was a large advertising campaign starting around the 1920-1930s launched by De Beers that pitched diamond rings as signs of everlasting love and made them the cultural norm for marriage proposals. Other then that, diamonds really don’t have any practical use that cheaper, and stronger, artificial ones don’t do better. All giving a diamond ring to your lo
“Historically, the wholesale diamond price has been controlled by De Beers Group, which has an estimated 40% to 50% of the market. Botswana is currently the largest producer of diamonds with mines operated by Debswana, a joint venture between De Beers and the Botswana government. However, since the 1980s, other producers have developed new mines in Russia, Canada and Australia for example, challenging De Beers’ dominance (historically De Beers market share was considerably higher, e.g. 80%). De Beers through its trading company known as the DTC raised wholesale diamond prices three times in 2004 by a total of 14%. The United States is the biggest consumer of diamonds in the world. The U.S. accounts for 35% of diamond sales, Hong Kong 26%, Belgium 15% (Antwerp is the world’s diamond-trading centre), Japan 6%, and Israel 4% . Israel and Belgium are important Hubs for trading diamonds thus consumption numbers are a bit misleading. The price of diamonds fluctuates with global demand and th
