Russia to dominate global diamond market?

The Russia could soon become dominant force in global diamond market, thanks to a huge Siberian source of diamonds that was formed by an asteroid impact 35 million years ago, a crater located in the Arctic Circle northeast of the most northern Russian city of Norilsk.

Russian sources claim that we are talking here about gigantic deposit of diamonds, containing many trillions of carats. Russian government already announced that they will send an expedition in 2013 to the crater in order to evaluate the profitability and total costs connected with diamond mining at this site.

The quality of these diamonds was already known in 1970s but the source was classified because the former USSR was involved in the production of synthetic diamonds.

Russia is now turning the other page and according to Russian Academician Nikolai Pokhilenko „the first results of research were sufficient to talk about a possible overturn of the entire world market of diamonds'.

These super-hard diamonds will find much better use in different industries such as metalworking, production of efficient semiconductors, space technologies, etc than becoming a part of different jewelry.

Scientists estimate these that these diamond reserves would be enough for the entire world for 3.000 years, and could kickstart another technical revolution.

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Botswana's diamond market experiencing slowdown

Botswana is one of the world's largest diamond exporters, with diamond industry playing major role in the economy of this otherwise poor African country. The bad news is that Botswana's diamond market is experiencing slowdown as nation's diamond exports fell by 61 percent, accounting to a staggering loss of $260.4 million in revenue this past year.

Botswana’s Central bank also reported that during the first seven months of this year, diamond exports fell by 31 percent, resulting in a huge $2.28 billion loss to economy.

The major culprit for this scenario is global economic recession accompanied by the low prices of diamonds and lack of foreign investments.

Diamonds play huge role in Botswana's economy by accounting for more than 30 percent of Botswana’s GDP and over 50 percent of the government’s revenue.

Many analysts expect market to pick up in 2013-2014 because many investors are still reluctant to make significant investments into new infrastructure projects as the effects of global recession don't look to be changing by the end of this year.

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What is the right size for diamond engagement ring?

Diamond rings are still the most popular form of diamond jewelry because proposing the bride with an engagement diamond ring has a very long tradition, and has been accepted in many countries of the world.

When choosing the perfect ring for your future bride you have to think about what is the adequate size of diamond.  This is not only important from the aesthetic point of view but also from financial point of view because even a small difference in size can mean spending considerably higher than you have planned with your budget.

A size of diamond is measured in carats. Anything below 0.5 carats may look to small, especially if you're future bride to be doesn't have small, tiny fingers. In average, 0.5-1 carat is the usual size of the diamond for the engagement ring.

This means that those with higher salaries should go for at least one carat while the rest could pass with ½ of carat. 

The quality of cut, and certain shapes could make diamond appear bigger than it really is. Too big diamond could look to flashy, and some ladies will rather want visible but not too flashy impression, though of course plenty of them love the bigger the better perspective.

Instead of going for just one larger diamond you can also decide to try the option of several smaller diamonds as this would give your engagement ring a more unusual look.

The size is just one part of the coin with the sparkle being the other one. If you properly put these two together you'll put a huge smile on your darling's face.

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World Diamond Bourses

It is hard to distinguish any precious gem that can compete with a diamond, the most valuable jewel during all the history of mankind. These gemstones served as top accessories for rich people, they were and still continue to be a very goal for lots of miners and promising investment for modern traders. The benefits of diamonds are hard to overestimate due to raising popularity. However, to date the places where diamonds are found became less interesting to the benefit of places, where they are sold. Numerous diamond bourse exchanges are distributed over the world map, which draw an attention of common tourists and experienced investors.

A history of organized diamonds’ trade started in 1947 when World Federation of Diamond Bourses was established. Its 29 members have accepted a set of common rules on sale of polished and rough gemstones. The head office was arranged in Antwerp, a historic and longstanding world trade center. This city is likely to be a paradise for diamond-fans in Europe notwithstanding existence of diamond bourses in London, Bratislava, Wien and others. Four largest diamond bourses are located precisely in Antwerp, which signifies of its top priority. In particular, they unite more than 1640 firms, 300 workshops and 12 thousands of specialists. No one come here by accident.

Since the 15^th century diamonds have played an important role in Antwerp livelihood. By that time India was a major supplier of rough gemstones, concealing its unique opportunities until the Age of Discovery and establishment of powerful trade connections. It was a long road before the last stop appeared in Antwerp. At first, they were exported to Venice, the biggest trade point on the West. Later, merchants started to transport them to Bruges, the so-called “Northern Venice”, where gem-cutting and trade were developed as well.  However, soon Bruges’ harbors started to be covered with sand and the diamond and precious stones industry in Antwerp appeared. As time passed, new bourses were created in the city, as well as in neighboring Amsterdam (in the 18^th century).

The 19^th century marked an emergence of new diamond bourses, especially after discovery Kimberley minefield in 1866. Diamonds appeared to be very promising and profitable business, which encouraged searches of new minefields. Massive migration of Jews at the eve of the World War II facilitated distribution of diamond experience and trade in the United States, England, Canada, but Antwerp preserved its status as a leading diamond spot. 

To date, every continentcan boast of large diamond bourses. It is impossible not to mention Diamond Bourse Exchange in Israel, created in 1937 and successfully working till now. The main advantage of diamond trade there is tax-free export and import, which led a way to wholesale dealers. On October 10^th 2010 the largest Bharat Diamond Bourseinitiated its operations. Indian authorities have been preparing to this grand-opening for more than 20 years in attempt to outrange Belgium and Israel.  So, diamonds nowadays became an issue of competence not only amongst firms, but states as well. 

By Maria Kruk, an author for Belgium.net

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Which colored diamonds are the most expensive?

The most expensive colored diamonds are the ones that are the rarest. The rarest colored diamonds include red diamonds (rarest of them all with less than 20 natural red diamonds in existence today), pink, green and blue diamonds. Of course, there are three other factors that together with color determine the price of a given diamond, namely cut, clarity and carat, but throughout this article I will mainly focus on color.

The largest price paid for diamond was $9.49 million, for a pink diamond weighing 7.03 carats. Australia is the origin for the majority of the world’s pink and red diamonds. Pink and red natural diamonds are so rare that only a handful of jewelers actually have the chance to look at these wonderful stones.

Famous red diamond Moussaieff Red, weighing 5.11 carats achieved the incredible price of $8 million, more than $1.5 million per carat. Another very expensive red diamond was Hancock Red, weighing just 0.95 carats but was still achieving a huge price of $880,000 in 1987.

Natural blue diamonds are also very expensive - fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 6.04 carats achieved $7.9 million, at the auction in Hong Kong in October 2007. In average, blue diamond engagement rings cost in average 10 to 50 times more than white diamond engagement rings.

Other colored diamonds can also achieve huge prices, vivid yellow diamonds, for instance, can cost more than $50.000 per carat. Vivid orange diamonds also achieve huge prices – for instance 8.93 carat Fancy Intense Orange diamond achieved $1.9 million at Sotheby, while 5.54 carat Pumpkin Diamond achieved the price of $1.3 million.

The thing that you also need to know is that these high astronomical prices refer only to diamonds created in nature, meaning that colored diamonds produced in lab have significantly smaller price tags.

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