Are Diamonds Really Rare?
When you walk into a jewelry store and see all the diamonds in all of the various settings that are for sale, it is difficult to realize that diamonds are indeed rare. Most people don't even stop to consider how that diamond came to be sitting in that jeweler's case! There is quite a bit of work that is done before a diamond is ready to sell to the general public! For every one million diamonds that are mined, only one will be found that is a quality one caret diamond. In order to find a two caret diamond, about five million diamonds must be mined. More than two hundred tons of ore must be mined to find one small diamond, and even then, more than 80% of the diamonds that are mined are only good for industrial use, such as diamond drill bits. So, the next time you visit your local jewelry store, ask to see the one carat diamonds. You should look at this diamond with new appreciation - knowing that it truly is one in a million!
Well yes, they are without doubt extremely rare. But artificial diamonds are becoming increasingly popular . Diamonds are peculiar because of their highly symmetric atomic structure, which makes them very easy to reproduce artificially. This is why it's really hard to tell a true diamond from a fake one, even in front of a microscope.
International Level: Politics 101 / Political Participation: 0 0%
Large, rare diamonds offer window into inner workings of Earth's mantle
Breakthrough research examines diamonds of exceptional size and quality to uncover clues about Earth's geology. The researchers studied the unique properties of diamonds with similar characteristics to famous stones such as the Cullinan, Constellation and Koh-i-Noor to advance our understanding of Earth's deep mantle, hidden beneath tectonic plates and largely inaccessible for scientific observation. Ref. Source 8w.
Yeah, much less rare than people think, and much much less valuable.
A very large portion of the non industrial grade diamonds that are mined never make it to market. They're instead stockpiled so that diamond corporations can control the flow and artificially boost the price to whatever level they think they can guilt poor schleps into paying.
And that's not even considering the recent "Problem" of man made diamonds. We're getting to the point where man made jewelry quality diamonds that are impossible to distinguish from the naturally produced selections are simple to produce en masse. People try to label these as fake, but there's no basis for that.
Frankly, I find the whole business disgusting, and far more a symbol of greed and artificial glamour than one of love.
Edited: daishain on 17th Dec, 2016 - 4:34pm