On Sun, 2007-10-07 at 22:29 -0700, Robert Donovan wrote: > > One way to make diamond prices go down is simply for all diamond > miners to refuse to sell to DeBeers. Daimonds are not actually that > rare a stone. DeBeers just buys every last one it can get their hands > on to withhold them from the market. Of course, convincing the likes > of the RUF to do that is a pipe dream. >
I once saw a program on diamonds. There was an interview with DeBeers. They flatly stated that diamonds are not rare. The said the reason that diamond prices are kept high is so that they will not lose their the sentimental/romantic/whatever value they have enjoyed for so long. Imagine what a blow it would be if suddenly a 1ct diamond could be purchased for a few bucks. (Note: It takes about 4 hours to polish a diamond until it is the shape you'd find in a piece of jewelry - Ref. "How It's Made"). Given that, it would still cost a bit of money even if they were not rare due to the overhead of having to pay the diamond cutter to make the thing.) PGA -- Paul G. Allen BSIT/SE Owner/Sr. Engineer Random Logic Consulting www.randomlogic.com -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
