Trends and Other Aspects of Diamond Market

This blog provides detailed information about Diamond, including its classification, manufacturing process, industrial usage, price trends, and important players in the market.

Diamond: Definition

Diamond can be defined as a naturally appearing mineral that consists of pure carbon. It is the hardest-known substance and the most popular gemstone in the world. Due to their high hardness level, diamonds have several significant applications in industries. Diamond’s qualities like hardness, brilliance and sparkle make them unmatched as gems. They are obtained from three kinds of deposits: alluvial gravels, glacial tills, and kimberlite pipes.

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The appearance of diamonds differs from colourless to black, and they can be transparent, translucent, or opaque. Nearly all diamonds that are utilised as gems are transparent and colourless or almost so. The most valued of all diamonds are the ones that are colourless or pale blue stones and are rarely found. However, the commonly found diamonds have a tinge of yellow in them. Several of the industrial diamonds appear grey or brown in colour and are opaque.

Diamond Production Process

The production process of diamonds includes a set of actions that relate to the extraction or mining of rough diamonds from mining sites across the world and comprises an alluvial, open pit, underground mining, and mining at sea. Mining is an expensive process, and hence it has a great impact on the diamond production cost.

The first step in the mining process is to locate a diamond deposit, and once it is discovered, the next step is to mine the diamonds. Mining has five different types: Artisanal Mining, Hard Rock Mining, Marine Mining, Open Pit Mining, and Placer Mining. After the rough diamonds are mined and sorted, they are transported to be cut and polished. The diamond is cut into specific shapes and is governed by the original shape of the rough diamond.

The diamond-cutting process is a prolonged and difficult activity, and it highly requires knowledge and experience. There are various kinds of cuts that have evolved over the period, the simplest being the point cut, the table cut, the single cut, the old mine cut, the old European cut and finally, the modern brilliant cut. The final stage of the cutting process is polishing which gives the diamond its completed parts. The first and possibly the most critical stage of polishing is blocking.

In this step, a foundation is laid for the potential performance of the diamond since it determines its basic equilibrium of it. The initial 17 or 18 facets are created in the blocking stage, making a single cut. The bigger diamonds undergo the brillianteering stage in which a specialist known as brillianteer polishes the final surfaces.

Industrial Uses of Diamond

Nearly 95 percent of the total industrial diamonds are utilised as abrasives for cutting, sanding, drilling and polishing. On the other hand, industrial diamonds with extreme thermal conductivity are employed in high-tech applications and optics. In addition, diamond also has exclusive optical properties like a high index of deflection, high diffusion, and an adamantine shine.

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It is used in speciality lenses which require endurance and performance. Moreover, precious gem diamonds with colour and clarity are desired for jewellery or investment purposes. Besides, diamond windows are created by using diamond membranes. These are utilised to shield the gaps in lasers, x-ray machines, and vacuum chambers. Furthermore, a thin coating of the diamond is used to manufacture wear-resistant parts.

Diamond Prices: Market Trend and Forecast

North America

There has been a tremendous increase in the demand for industrial applications in the North American region, encouraging the promotion of synthetic diamonds in the region. Moreover, the United States is the world's main consumer of diamonds and other associated products.

Asia Pacific

Due to the restricted supply and increasing operating and transportation expenditures, the jewellery sector in India is spinning under pressure at present. The jewellery industry has further increased the burden of price hikes on consumers to safeguard their dropping profit margins. Since the United States has imposed sanctions against Alrosa (Russia), the largest producer of rough diamonds, the prices of rough diamonds in the Indian market have surged by 30 percent.

The increased diamond price was mainly because of the recovery measures started by the jewellery sector to overcome the losses. Moreover, diamond producers in India are encountering a jinxed upsurge in diamond prices and dropping in demand. Besides, the diamond prices increased additionally since the United States and European buyers stressed getting certificates of origin after their restrictions against Russian diamond exports.

Europe

The international supply of rough diamonds was reduced by 40 percent due to the sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe on Russia's biggest diamond mining company, Alrosa. There has been a hike of about 20 percent in the price of a small diamond that is generally assembled around a solitaire ring because of the market situation. The diamond price trend surged all through the European market and is expected to be consistent on the higher side of the scale in the near future.

Key Industry Players

• De Beers Group (Anglo American)
• Applied Diamond Inc
• Industrial Diamond Laboratories, Inc
• Lucara Diamond Corp. (Lundin Group of Companies)
• Petra Diamonds Limited
• Gem Diamonds

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