Slashdot Mirror
Huge Diamond Deposits Revealed In Russia
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from the Christian Science Monitor: "'Russia has just declassified news that will shake world gem markets to their core: the discovery of a vast new diamond field containing 'trillions of carats,' enough to supply global markets for another 3,000 years. 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."
I remember learning about DeBeers and having this bit of information come up at some point.... lots of people in Russia dying mysterious deaths surrounding the topic of diamonds in Russia.
Diamonds are fairly plentiful and common. That they are expensive and considered valuable is marketing... or racketeering... whatever you want to call it.
If Russia can help it, not at all.
Unlike Gold, or even many other gemstones which have a rarity that enhances value? Diamonds are only of spectacular value, when they achieve very large carat size, without flaws or inclusions.
But there's a mystique , deliberately crafted, to conflate the value of a 2-carat Zales engagement ring with something like the Koh-i-noor.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Nope. The price of diamonds is completely artificial, agreed upon by all the suppliers and does not reflect their actual value or supply availability. It's the biggest case of non-penalized price fixing in the history of the world.
I am curious if there's going to be a huge diamond down there... I'm assuming that they formed from the pressure created by the impact...
Bow before me, for I am root.
According to Wikipedia graphite in an 8.5 mile radius of the impact was turned into diamond due to impact pressure.
This Slashdot. You must be new here.
What is this "wife" of which you speak?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Here is an informative article, a must-read if you're interested in diamonds. It's old (written in 1982) but everything still applies. In fact it's amazing that the public still hasn't gotten wise to the diamond racket in the 30 years since the article.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/1/?google_editors_picks=true
A peer reviewed paper describing the occurrence is here (paywalled):
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1998.tb01639.x/abstract
The diamonds are ~0.2-0.5mm, elongate or tabular layered grains. They are sometimes colorless but often are yellow, grey, or black. Rarely there are diamonds which reach 10mm found in the alluvial gravel.
If the deposit is as rich as the article claims it looks like an excellent source for industrial diamonds, although given how fractured they are it won't change the gem diamond market much.
Yeah it's almost like someone decided to put a funny pattern on some paper, cut it up into small rectangles, and declare it worth something. Can you imagine people accepting something like that?! A completely artificially-restricted supply of controlled by one organization! What next, they arrest people who try and print their own!?
In seriousness, there is no value beyond consensus. Gold is not any more intrinsically valuable than diamonds (or fiat currency!); people simply agree to trade a certain amount of one thing (paper, bank balance, etc) for it. This is why people pay for BitCoins (and other virtual goods), why currency fluctuates, and in essence, how the economy works.
(The malleability of gold and other arguments of function are entirely irrelevant; people always agree on value for some reason, from "I have too much money and I felt like it," to "I need it for my research." Reason is a constant, and one reason is not inherently better or more valid than another.)
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
"It's the biggest case of non-penalized price fixing in the history of the world."
It would be interesting to see whether OPEC price fixing cost the world more than this cartel. I have a sneaking suspicion it would win hands down.
To be even more specific, let me translate a quote from one of the scientists involved (source):
"This isn't even diamond. The hardness of this phase (lonsdalite) is 1.54 higher than that of diamond, and here we have nanometer-sized crystals of cubic diamonds and lonsdalite - it's a very viscous matrix, which is what defines the extraordinary qualities of the Popygay impactite. The proportion of lonsdalite in some of these samples is as high as 70%."
Also, according to the same article, the market price of those crystals is estimated as $2-2.5 per carat. For comparison, jewelry-grade diamonds go for thousands of dollars per carat.
The price of the diamonds may go down, but the amount of money you are required to spend on your wife to demonstrate your love for her will remain fixed. Bigger diamond, more diamonds, platinum band, all these options are open to her to make sure you don't spend less on her than she expects. And she expects
you to spend enough on her that you notice the cost. Not enough to cause resentment, but enough to delay discretionary and hobby purchases for yourself for anything up to year or so, depending on the occasion (e.g. an eternity ring).
This will elevate her status amongst her peers, confirming to them and her family that she made the right choice in a lifetime mate: someone who has the financial wherewithal to make these purchases and someone who has an emotional attachment to her that's strong enough to actually do it. It will also increase her financial self-worth, giving her something she can personally contribute to the family (at high emotional cost) in times of great need, or something of intrinsic and emotional value she can hand on to favoured descendants. At worst, she can flog it off if you separate.
Buy these things for her, and be happy with your lot. With luck, you may get a blowjob on your birthday.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
DeBeers had an office in the US. They used to own the diamond mine down in Arkansas. But due to the Apartheid thing, and the price fixing, they were forced out, and on the way out they dynamited the diamond mine rather than leave an operation working mine. Almost all the diamonds coming out of Diamond Crater are gem quality. The Star of Arkansas came from there. A beautiful colored diamond.
In fact a CVD-grown diamond can be far superior to any natural stone you could ever find - with potentially zero inclusions or other defects. In fact if not for the laser-inscribed serial number on them the only way they could be distinguished from natural diamonds is that they are "too perfect"
As a bonus instead of funneling money into an abusive cartel you'll be supporting an industry which hopes to eventually be able to produce bulk laboratory-grade diamonds of arbitrary size, allowing the creation of things like diamond-based microprocessors which would be impossible with even the least-flawed natural stones (diamond is a dopeable electric insulator and an *incredible* thermal conductor, making it ideal for high-performance semiconductors)
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Is this another naturally occurring state of carbon that should be called something else?
Yes.
That article is an excerpt from Epstein's book The Diamon Invention, which is available in full online on the author's website. It's an amazing read.
Diamonds, tennis-bracelets, rings, necklaces, whatever.
If marketing-men tell the women that men need to buy these to "prove" their "love", they can live off the labor of those enslaved by their little scheme.
When I see diamonds, its obvious that these things are absolutely useless for anything but some rather esoteric applications, which would demand the perfection of a manufactured diamond, or a run of the mill abrasive.
If its glittery jewelry, go for the optical stuff - it can be manufactured much cheaper than trying to find them in nature. Hell, so is a Coke bottle.
Why aren't women as enthused over a gift of carborundum? Marketing.
Its much like religion, where microphone-men hock up all sorts of stuff about demonstrating one's faith while passing the plate.
Marketing heads tell us to work our a** off and give them the nectar of our efforts, and we - being the obedient sheeple we are - obey.
The marketing head gets rich while the rest of us try to earn a wage.
DeBeers gets rich by convincing men that they have to be paid before we can get access to women's heavenly parts.
And we pay. And pay. And pay. We are sooooo dumb!.
DeBeers gets rich by convincing men that they have to be paid before we can get access to women's heavenly parts.
Would it not be the women who are being convinced? I mean otherwise it wouldn't matter.