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Diamond prices to crash - Trillions of carots found

DeBeers will buy them and sell them at twice the price as current diamonds.
 
This may be the one time DeBeers can't exercise total monopoly. The Russian mofia/government is pretty tough - and has nukes.

What is at stake is the sense of rarity. That is now at risk.
 
This is why I've never advocated diamonds as a way of storing wealth.... the price has been kept artificially inflated for decades if not longer.


If the supply wasn't kept deliberately constrained, a diamond wouldn't cost any more than any other pretty rock someone polished up.
 
This may explain what I had been watching with curiousity over the last few weeks - the sudden declaration that "black diamonds" are truly the most desirable.

Huh? The beautiful of a diamond refracting light, which is exactly what a black diamond won't do. Other than technically a "diamond," it is no more beautiful than any black gem because it does not refract light.

Then, before the link above, when I saw the article about an outrageously expensive gown at $5.7 milliion - so costly being laced with "black diamonds." I wondered more "what the hell? Black diamonds???"

But that gown story was released at the same time - and I think in response to - the announcement of TRILLIONS of carots of diamonds.

Thus, its clear. They are redefining what is the truly "rare" stone and it isn't clear diamonds anymore - that clarity and pureness of the clarity isn't what matters. Rather, the exact opposite -that the most valuable "diamond" is the one with the least clarity!

$5.7 Million Dress Dazzles with Black Diamonds, but Isn't the Priciest Gown Out There | Fashion - Yahoo! Shine

This is why gems are a bad investment as THE gem to have changes across time. This has happened to other non-diamond gems

This is a danger also of precious metals. Many world economies used to be based on silver, including Germany. Then the massive California Comstock mine came in, all but totally destroyed the German economy, which had to dump its silver based economy and everyone who had "invested" in silver bullion and fine silver tea sets etc...

The same can happen to gold or any other "precious" and "rare" materials.
 
ummm. Was this part of the article not noticed:

Impact diamonds are significantly harder than normal diamonds, and are best suited for industrial or scientific use.

These are not gem quality diamonds, and it is unlikely many - if any - will end up as jewelry, yet the article then estimates the wealth of the find based on what diamonds could sell for at the extreme high end (very large or high quality gemstones).

Given that diamonds can sell for $2,000 per karat with unusually large diamonds going for as much as $20 million

This is great for anyone who needs diamond tipped drill bits, but I would not expect it to impact the prices for high quality diamonds all that much.
 
Wonder how they overlooked it until now. 35 million years is a long time not to notice something :)


I had originally read this story a few days ago by a different source. In that article they said that the mine had been in operation since the 1970's but had not been brought to public attention until now.


Ahh found the story: Russians discover giant diamond field - Business Insider

The Soviets discovered the bonanza back in the 1970s beneath a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile diameter asteroid crater in eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem.
They decided to keep it secret, and not to exploit it, apparently because the USSR's huge diamond operations at Mirny, in Yakutia, were already producing immense profits in what was then a tightly controlled world market.

So they have known about it for a while.
 
Russia has announced they have a 62 mile wide ancient crater with TRILLIONS of carots of diamonds by a massive meteorite hitting a graphite deposit.

Russian asteroid crater revealed to be filled with over $1 quadrillion of diamonds | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News

Remember all the "invest in gems" ads recently?

Does this mean that blowjobs will become much much cheaper in the future?

Also the good news is if black diamonds are the most valuable, they can be grown cheaply in a lab.
 
ok... so.

Russia also has a lot of that good expensive caviar. It is in fact the #1 caviar exporter in the world. In Russia and Ukraine, caviar is very, very cheap. I mean... really cheap. However, in the EU and the USA, it is expensive. Why? because Russia limits the export. low export -> high prices.

What I am getting at is that it doesn't matter at all if they found millions of diamonds... all it matters is how fast will they get to the international market.
 
Diamonds aren't as rare or valuable as people have been led to believe. . . the pricing is driven by pretty craft marketing at this point. Technology has flooded the market already and corporate dominance has kept the prices high.
 
As a female, I really couldn't care less about gem stones even if I tried. And I never understood "investing" in jewelry to build wealth or a safety net.

That said: Interesting development. Wonder why they're announcing it now.
 
As a female, I really couldn't care less about gem stones even if I tried. And I never understood "investing" in jewelry to build wealth or a safety net.

That said: Interesting development. Wonder why they're announcing it now.

I read somewhere that the tradition of giving a fiancee' a diamond ring was a statement that the man was going to give her economic security - in a era where women were dependent upon men for her personal economic situation - with the diamond to be at least a minimal safety net for its value.
 
I read somewhere that the tradition of giving a fiancee' a diamond ring was a statement that the man was going to give her economic security - in a era where women were dependent upon men for her personal economic situation - with the diamond to be at least a minimal safety net for its value.

I guess that makes sense....

The ring I want has a very, very small sapphire (and I believe it's a lab-created sapphire, at that). No diamonds at all. It's white gold, which is pretty much my only "splurge", and only because I hate yellow gold (looks tacky to me).

My thing is: why would I want something super expensive and super flashy drawing attention to me? Women who carry designer bags and deck themselves in pounds of expensive jewelry are just screaming to be accosted and robbed, IMO. I'd rather keep it simple and low key. If I don't look like I have money, I'm not likely to be targeted for it.
 
Diamonds aren't as rare or valuable as people have been led to believe. . . the pricing is driven by pretty craft marketing at this point. Technology has flooded the market already and corporate dominance has kept the prices high.

Crafty marketing AND DeBeers keeping the supply on the market artificially low since they pretty much own directly or indirectly most of the operating diamond mines.
 
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I guess that makes sense....

The ring I want has a very, very small sapphire (and I believe it's a lab-created sapphire, at that). No diamonds at all. It's white gold, which is pretty much my only "splurge", and only because I hate yellow gold (looks tacky to me).

My thing is: why would I want something super expensive and super flashy drawing attention to me? Women who carry designer bags and deck themselves in pounds of expensive jewelry are just screaming to be accosted and robbed, IMO. I'd rather keep it simple and low key. If I don't look like I have money, I'm not likely to be targeted for it.

Two opposite perspectives from two wealthy women we know.

One is the trophy wife of a billionaire of a family of billionaires. While they buy exorbitantly expensive toys and otherwise spend money on themselves - and the wives too. However, she and the other women only wear simple gold wedding bands to show they are married and thus unavailable. The family believes that wearing expensive jewelry would be no different than just hanging baggies full of hundred dollar bills and thousand dollar savings bonds around their necks. In short, would be arrogant and tacky.

The other is a very wealthy older widow who falls well into the category of a millionaire, but not of the super rich. She wears an extreme amount of very high dollar diamond jewelry - every finger, around her neck and broaches - that her deceased husband gave her. She said there is no reason to just to keep it locked away in a safe deposit box and there is so much no one believes its real - so just see her as some nutty old woman wearing gobs of costume jewelry as she walks in public openly wearing a million dollars worth of diamonds and gold.

I have no jewelry of any kind myself and my wife only wears a tiny gold cross around her neck, although she does have some costly and inexpensive sets of earrings for special outings.
 
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Russia has announced they have a 62 mile wide ancient crater with TRILLIONS of carots of diamonds by a massive meteorite hitting a graphite deposit.

Russian asteroid crater revealed to be filled with over $1 quadrillion of diamonds | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News

Remember all the "invest in gems" ads recently?

I see no reason why diamonds are the same value as any other precious rock. Mostly it's all controlled through the diamond companies anyway and not through market force.
 
ok... so.

Russia also has a lot of that good expensive caviar. It is in fact the #1 caviar exporter in the world. In Russia and Ukraine, caviar is very, very cheap. I mean... really cheap. However, in the EU and the USA, it is expensive. Why? because Russia limits the export. low export -> high prices.

Partially, but then lobster is mega-cheap in Nova Scotia. For proof I offer the existence of the "McLobster"



It's always cheaper at the source.
 
Diamonds have never been rare; their prices are preposterous.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of them in 5-6 stores in every mall in North America ALONE.
 
DeBeers will buy them and sell them at twice the price as current diamonds.

Yeah, there has been a glut of diamonds ever since the Australian pipe mines were discovered. DeBeers or someone in the consortium buys them up and then limit release to keep the price high.

Interestingly enough it was also DeBeers that made diamonds the wedding stone through excellent advertising. Diamonds were once considered the ugly duckling of gem stones and no one who loved their girlfriend would even consider giving them as a gift. .
 
Had a friend and customer in last week telling me about gold investment. He thought it might be a good idea to pick some up so he researched it. What with all the advertisement (You've got to have gold! ZOMG) you'd think it was a good deal, but in his research he found that if you sell gold (over a certain dollar amount) you are subject to a 28% TAX on it. Really?

I'm pretty well invested in precious metals. Mostly lead and brass....;)
 
Had a friend and customer in last week telling me about gold investment. He thought it might be a good idea to pick some up so he researched it. What with all the advertisement (You've got to have gold! ZOMG) you'd think it was a good deal, but in his research he found that if you sell gold (over a certain dollar amount) you are subject to a 28% TAX on it. Really?

I'm pretty well invested in precious metals. Mostly lead and brass....;)

Well, from 1933 to 1974 it was illegal for individuals to own gold bullion. The best way to invest in gold is through gold funds.

But if you want to collect precious metals, your best bets are platinum and rhodium. They are rare metals and their prices don't fluctuate with near the extreme swings as gold.
 
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