Diamond Industry

Diamond Industry

Diamonds are forever and diamonds are a girl’s best friend. But what about the diamond industry? The diamond industry is divided into two main parts, mainly diamonds as precious stones or gems, and as industrial grade diamonds. Indeed, diamonds do cut through glass and being the hardest material on Earth are very valuable in construction and other trades requiring tools. However, the infatuation with diamonds as jewelry has a legend attached to it, stating that a marketing strategy might be associated with the romantic, engagement and marriage connotations diamonds have come to embody.

Further, there have been controversies surrounding diamonds, such as blood diamonds, and exploitation and corruption related to diamond mining. Notwithstanding, the purpose of the present short essay is to discuss the diamond industry without dipping into politics. Still, one may add that any discussion of economics involves political science to an extent, the subject even being called political economy in the past, and only later being divided into two separate social sciences. Interestingly, over eighty percent (80%) of diamonds mined worldwide fail to correspond to the gemstone industry and are instead used in industry. Also, a similarly valued precious stone is the sapphire; many gemstones, such as aquamarine and amethyst being considered semi-precious stones.

Diamonds are forever. Illustration: Elena

As jewels, diamonds are valued in terms of their clarity, colour and flawlessness. Indeed, there are white diamonds, pink diamonds, yellow diamonds, blue diamonds and black diamonds. Further, diamonds are measured in carats and the larger the diamond the higher its value and price, ceteris paribus or other things being equal. Typically, the largest and most expensive diamonds in the world are associated with crown jewels. Today, the largest diamonds known to historians are part of the British Crown Jewels. The initial stone was an impressive 3106.75 carats and weighted just over 600 grams. Cut into 105 diamonds, it produced the Cullinan I (Great Star of Africa) and Cullinan II (Lesser Star of Africa) belonging to the British monarchy.