Russia reveals shiny state secret: It's awash in diamonds

reply to post by Eidolon23


you forgot to add two more diamonds to a couple of teeth to complete the grill

less then ,03% are gem grade and the rest are industrial grade. these are from a volcanic tube deposit

what the Russians don't say is what the grade of there deposit is.

my guess is that because it was from a sudden pressure event unlike a volcanic pressure event the Russian diamonds are industrial with none of large gem grade. crystals do not grow very big unless the heat and pressure last a long time.

Originally posted by grey580
reply to post by AGWskeptic

 

Diamonds are a funny thing.
They really don't cost that much.
But since it's jewelry sold at the mall.
The price is jacked up about 4 times the wholesale cost.

So you always get suckered into paying more than it's worth.

I know that the most exclusive shops in the UK mark-up their costs by 3.2 but in America the keystone is 100%. The price is merely doubled. Now a days with the Asian producers dealing direct most jewellers will accept a 50% margin. The most successful will only add a 10% mark-up because these precious little items are not hard to move when you have enough orders.

Diamonds have the smallest mark-up of all. 10% is an excellent rate. Almost any other product you can think of is protected from the market more.

What you don't understand is that while the most expensive is priced for rarity, the cheapest stuff is 10% of the price.

The wholesale cost of the raw material is not very expensive by comparison, however the cutting is always done at sweet shops and the cost is nix. Diamonds can't be cut in 1st world countries. There would be no chance of selling any. There are some exclusive cutting houses left in the major diamond centers but they have 100's of years of experience and the ordinary business man can never hope to manufacture diamonds outside of India, Russia and China.

I don't know where you got 400% from. There some chance that the cheesy branded stuff at around $100 per item is marked up 400%, or the silver you can buy at Tiffany has a high price (massive overheads too). Diamonds have the lowest mark-up of any product. There's plenty of rational reasons for this.

The diamond industry isn't a profitable trade.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by Droogie

 

If they were really smart, they would have kept this secret and slowly put them on the market and made a huge profit but now it'll ruin the market when more people realize just how plentiful the really are.

My take on it anyways

My take is that Russian the factories that were creating synthetic diamonds at the same price it costs to mine them have improved their production and perhaps feel confident that they pass the certificate laboratories as "natural". It's always been a matter of time before the producers could get past any new technologies made to discern natural from synthetic diamonds.

Russia is a leader in synthetic diamonds. They are also sitting on top of some of the best mines - very clean, white material.. like Canada. De Beers has gone away from the position of a cartel but the new cartels also work at controlling the price of rough (by stating exactly who gets what and for how much).

The only reason they didn't come out with it is the same reason they don't talk too much about the diamond industry in Africa There's tons and tons of it and if we all knew that then the prices would have to drop rapidly and dramatically.

reply to post by PhysicsAdept


The concept of value of diamonds has always seemed an idiots gamble, if the population awakes to their real value, it is very similar to pearls, once they were rare but today like diamonds one can even artificially grow them.

It has been possible to grow white diamonds for a while now.

It seems stupid to pay much for something that as a vary limited use (I read somewhere that there is a carbon structure that has surpassed diamonds as a cutting tool). The only value is aesthetic especially in the cut and design including setting but that is not why most people buy them. It is a bubble that will burst as soon as people realize the idiocy of it all...

A favourite topic.

Diamonds are the perfect metaphor for modern Western society.

Everyone knows the industry is gross. Everyone knows that people are horribly exploited because of them, and I don't mean in the mall.

Yet, for a pretty shiny rock everyone is willing to ignore it.

Better, make the shiny rock mean "love" and you can ignore all the blood and mercury poisoning attached to it.

How important is the shiny rock? It is more important than food, rationality, love of your fellow human being.

Made easier of course by the fact that if for a moment you notice how terrible child slave labour in a mine with no standards might be, you can distract yourself by looking at your pretty rock and thinking about how you can have someone get you another shiny rock.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC), Liberia and Sierra Leone use child labor in their diamond activities, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Labor. Sierra Leone is also accused of using forced labor in its diamond industry. The three are just a few of the countries that are accused of using children to produce a long list of products that also includes gold, silver and gems.

But it isn't YOU, the buyer, doing it. Or you, the woman demanding a diamond for love. No no. You're just an innocent victim of the downstream. You could grind the whole mechanism into the ground by NOT purchase a stupid shiny rock. That would be too....responsible.

Even if the impact is hitting you, with increased mercury in your food, you still don't care. The increasing amount of mercury found in your food chain...oh wait, I have a pretty shiny rock.

Maybe we can all be the Mad Hatter - The Hatter's of the past were considered mad because they rubbed mercury into felt hats and the mercury built up in their system and caused nervous system damage that made them fling their limbs around without control.



I need a picture of him with a big diamond ring on his finger.

Of course this assume that anyone actually cares about their fellow human being to begin with. Which they don't, since the majority of people don't ever get past the initial "society tells me that if you love me you'll give me a rock set in metal."

And Ladies - I'm talking to you. Sure there are other uses for diamonds, but you are all feeding this industry and feel good about it. It means marriage. Isn't that nice? Of course, it also means that you can't eat much of the food that is good for the development of the brains of a baby due to mercury content. But hey, what is stupider babies when you got yourself a rock?

reply to post by bowtomonkey


Not being particularly profitable, gross, and ridiculous makes this industry an even better metaphor for the stupidity and irresponsibility of unthinking consumerism.


But of course I say all this, and the big guys have been pulling out of this industry for a while now. Wouldn't be surprised if they've been aware of the problem of supply for a while and have been backing out slowly to minimize losses.

Sigh.

reply to post by Droogie


Its odd, not sure if any ones already mentioned it but this is hardly a secret really.

As a teenager back in the early 90's there was a 60 minutes piece done about the diamond vaults of Russia (it was after all the period right after the fall of the wall and the collapse of communism and as such Russia was an in thing to do docos about).

I remember the journalist being taken into one of the small storage areas and it was basically shelves packed to the base of the next shelf full of bags containing 10's of thousands of cut diamonds. They basically said that if even a fraction of the diamonds in the vaults where ever stuck on the market, diamonds as a commodity would be come worthless.

So its hardly a new secret, although at least they've admitted to it. That being said, the artificially created demand is scum baggy, and if we could crash the diamond market we might be able to finally get the stuff being used the way it should as a very useful material rather than some form of cash sink or monetary item or stupid adornment on wealthy and not so wealthy ladies.

Ultimately diamonds are just purest Carbon... and there's one thing in the universe thats pretty damn abundant... and its carbon, and Earths awash with the stuff. Never understood the human fancy for glittering clear rocks or the act of hording the damn stuff.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by Droogie

 

If they were really smart, they would have kept this secret and slowly put them on the market and made a huge profit but now it'll ruin the market when more people realize just how plentiful the really are.

My take on it anyways

not if you think about it.

so they flood the market with more diamonds than usual or people find out they arent as rare.

if the sellers dont budge, people will just keep buying them and the sellers will have no reason to drop in price.

the ONLY way would be to boycott diamonds altogether.

Originally posted by Seremela
The only reason they didn't come out with it is the same reason they don't talk too much about the diamond industry in Africa

There's tons and tons of it and if we all knew that then the prices would have to drop rapidly and dramatically.

There's tons and tons of it, if and when the factories start making it.

This is the problem with propaganda and conspiracies together. You make alarmists assumptions based on real fears (there no facts here) but instead of reaching the truth you end up enabling the type of corruption you would fear ... if you had enough sense.

Originally posted by Aeons
reply to post by bowtomonkey

 

Not being particularly profitable, gross, and ridiculous makes this industry an even better metaphor for the stupidity and irresponsibility of unthinking consumerism.


But of course I say all this, and the big guys have been pulling out of this industry for a while now. Wouldn't be surprised if they've been aware of the problem of supply for a while and have been backing out slowly to minimize losses.

Sigh.

edit on 2012/9/18 by Aeons because: (no reason given)

I have my guesses why you feel this way but you have no facts of any kind... just assumptions so I can't say more.

My understanding of the industry is real, having read so many 100's of articles over the years and been involved with some of the biggest authorities on the subject. That's why I can't accept such a crazy self serving conspiracy.

BTW: It seems my view endorses yours where other conspiracy theorists are concerned. That's fine. Muddy some non-existent waters.

To hell with your views on consumerism and the price of diamonds.

The industry does control the price of diamonds because they sit on vast sums of the stuff while it moves! and control how much is released and when. What you don't understand is that this is an expensive way to operate and all they do is hold a bit more than they need. It's exactly the same with any kind of food stuff's, for example. This is the basis of the "farmers collective" that all farmers work with, but in that case oversupply of food is destroyed.

Diamonds have an industrial use too. If there was 1/100th as much as theorists here like to ASSERT they'd use it up.

Diamonds are just overpriced shiny rocks, besides some industrial uses they have, all of it is just hype and propaganda so they can make a killing selling them to women and rappers.