Full supply chain from billion-year-old kimberlite pipes through Botswana mining, Antwerp trading, Surat polishing, and 4C grading to retail sale.
Key Takeaways
Only 1 in 200 kimberlite pipes contains gem-quality diamonds; pipes are located via magnetite magnetic surveys and LiDAR before drilling.
Rough ore is boiled in sulfuric acid to remove impurities; diamonds survive because kimberlite is softer than diamond.
Around 91% of the world’s diamonds are polished in Surat, India, across roughly 5,000 factories from family workshops to high-tech units.
Polished diamonds travel Surat to Mumbai via the century-old informal Angadia courier network, then to global hubs priced against the Rapaport Price List.
Each certified diamond gets a unique laser-inscribed number on its girdle for authenticity verification against its grading report.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters flagged that the article’s framing of industrial diamonds as mined understates reality: the vast majority of industrial diamond grit used today is synthetic and has been cheap commodity since the 1950s, with bulk grit now trading at 5-30 cents per carat.
The lab-grown gem market is collapsing in price due to Chinese and Indian factory overcapacity; De Beers quietly wound down its CVD gem operation (LightBox in Oregon), offloading it to Element Six, with 3ct+ stones recently clearing at roughly $200/ct.
A 2024 method for growing diamonds at atmospheric pressure was noted as potentially disruptive, though currently limited to small crystals.
Notable Comments
@generuso: 99% of diamonds by mass are industrial, yet only 3% of revenue; natural gem stones are 0.8% of mass but ~40% of total revenue.
@felooboolooomba: 2024 atmospheric-pressure diamond synthesis Wikipedia entry linked as a credible near-term disruption signal.
