How rare are the diamonds?
The jewelry industry advertises that diamonds are a rare mineral but no more so than the gold from which most expensive jewelry is made.

I have been in the diamond industry for over 45 years and I think diamonds are truly a rare mineral.
In this article, I want to focus on natural diamonds and not laboratory diamonds, which are also called synthetic diamonds.
In 2020, 112 million carats of rough diamonds were mined, it sounds like a lot, but in order to understand the amount of diamonds that are set in jewelry, it is necessary to understand and calculate the amount of ornamental diamonds that are produced from them each year and what the future of diamond sales is.

Well, in 2020, 112 million carats were mined, and when each gram is 5 carats, then in a quick calculation, 22.4 tons of rough diamonds were mined,
If we compare this figure to the amount of gold that was produced that year, about 3000 tons, then you can see that in 2020, the world’s gold mines produced 130 times more gold than the diamond mines.

About 85% of the rough diamonds produced are not of the quality of ornamental diamonds and are called industrial diamonds;
They are used for the industries, while the gold produced from the mines is entirely suitable for the jewelry industry.

Therefore, we were left with 15% decorative diamonds that can and should be polished in order to be suitable for setting in jewelry.
A rough ornamental diamond loses about 50% of its weight during polishing, which turns into powder.

Let’s go back to the year 2020 when 22.4 tons of rough diamonds were produced and only 15% of them are decorative diamonds or 3.36 tons that need to be polished and thus we were left after polishing and before sorting with 1.68 tons of diamonds, or if you want 8.4 million carats of diamonds.

In polished inventory from origin, the average diamond size is about 0.18 carat.

The average size of the diamonds set in an engagement ring as of this period is 0.30 carat, so in order to get this size we need to polish stones weighing at least 0.60 carat and in order to get a diamond weighing 1 carat we need to polish a diamond weighing 2 carat and so on.
Now we can talk about the quality of the diamond,

Many of the raw materials that are produced have black inclusions and internal defects that cannot be removed. weak colors are found in all of the diamonds produced.

So regarding the future, the diamond producers say that half of the mines are going to be close in the next twenty years because there are no more diamonds in them.

The cost of operating the mines is not economically viable and in their opinion, no new mines are expected to open.
According to the producers, the stock of raw materials is about to be end in about 40 years and therefore natural diamonds will continue to be rare in the years to come