What is the entire process that is involved before we actually purchase the diamond from a retail store?

The diamond jewellery supply chain (known as the diamond pipeline) is the process that brings diamonds from the earth to consumers. It has several different stages:

1. Exploration
Diamonds are found in many countries around the world, but the majority (approximately 65%) are found in Africa. The main diamond producing countries are:

Angola
Australia
Botswana
Canada
Democratic Republic of Congo
Namibia
Russia
South Africa

Diamonds are usually found in a type of rock called kimberlite. This type of rock is usually found under compounds such as sand, soil or glaciers.

2. Mining
Once diamonds are detected, there are different methods used to extract them depending on the environment in which they are found. The majority of diamonds are removed by:
- Open pit mining (excavation to reach diamonds on the surface of the ground)
- Underground mining (excavation up to, and in some instances, over 1km below ground)
- Coastal and inland mining (which is the removal of the sand or glaciers, etc. which are covering them)
- Marine mining (excavation of diamonds from the seabed)

3. Sorting
Once processed at the mine, rough diamonds are delivered to sorting experts to be sorted and valued into different categories in preparation for sale. There are thousands of different categories into which diamonds can be sorted, dependent on size, shape, quality and color. The majority of diamonds fall within a range of standard colors from colorless to faint yellow or brown tints. Some very rare diamonds, known as ‘fancies’, are bright colors, such are pink, blue or green. A perfectly transparent diamond with no color or hue is considered to be the purest, but all rough diamonds have some distinguishing marks, known as inclusions, which make each one unique.

The diamonds that are of gem quality are sold to distributers and the ones that are not are used for industrial purposes.


4. Cutting and polishing
Gem quality diamonds are usually distributed to one of the main diamond cutting and trading centers in
Antwerp, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, New York, China, Thailand or Johannesburg. Once they arrive at the diamond centers, experts cut and polish the rough diamonds into shapes, such as the round, the princess or the emerald, etc. Once they are cut, they are polished and then evaluated based on their individual characteristics. These diamonds are typically sold to diamond wholesalers or diamond jewelry manufacturers in one of the 24 registered diamond exchanges (known as bourses) located across the world.

5. Jeweler manufacturing
Wholesalers or manufacturers buy relatively small amounts of unset, polished diamonds. Wholesalers sell these to jewelry designers, manufacturers or retailers. These jewelers will use these polished diamonds to create jewelry

6. Retailing
The final stage of the diamond pipeline is when diamond jewellery is sold by retailers to the consumer. The value of diamond jewellery sold each year is approximately US$72 billion, which includes the cost of the diamonds, precious metals and other gems. The USA represents the largest market (50%), followed by Japan (15%), Italy (5%), India (3%), China (2%), The Gulf (2%) and other countries (23%). According to independent research, diamond jewellery is the most highly sought-after category of luxury goods, both by women for themselves and by men for gifts.

• 0
• 0