the dirt on diamonds

by Krista Claudene

 

The 4Cs - Really Educating The Consumer

Diamonds are absolutely beautiful, yes. They are now a tradition, yes. But, before you spend your hard-earned dollars on a new diamond (and support an industry), learn the truth.

We buy diamonds as consumers based on something called the 4C's. Anyone who's purchased one in the last few years knows this term. The 4C's, however, is a marketing ploy invented as a “grading scale” so that the industry could justify the variation in dealers' pricing of, say, one-carat stones. Of course, color, clarity, and cut do have something to do with a diamond's value, but there are other important factors you should know. We'll get to those facts later, starting with an evaluation of this 4C's thing.

Cut comes first. Not it shape…"round" or "marquis"…but literally how well it is cut from the rough stone, to get the maximum brilliance. Diamonds get mined ‘in the rough', then measured for cutting. Depending on how well they are cut (including how big the surface or table is, to how deep it is, to how precise the facets are, etc.) is one of the primary factors. Of course, a rare canary yellow diamond is in it's own category before cutting, but we are talking about the cut of your every day white diamond. A cutting formula was discovered that spelled out the best dimensions for a round diamond cut (only for round shapes, by the way). If it doesn't adhere to those standards, the diamond can be greatly devalued, not to mention may break. It is therefore very important to learn and understand a diamond's dimensions, it's cut. A diamond already set into a ring should at least be accompanied by a GIA certificate so you can see the dimensions. (Other certificates are held to different standards.) The GIA certificate dimensions can be measured up against the DIY chart to tell you if your diamond is well cut or not. A diamond that is not well cut can chip, be dull, and actually weigh 2 carats but be cut so deep that it looks small. Cut is the only truly-scientifically quantifiable characteristic of a diamond -- and all certificates should give the proportions of the cut of the diamond. Know its dimensions so you can buy the best diamond for the money. No one told you that before, eh?

Now the loose diamond is cut, gets polished, then goes for grading. Firstly, polishing can distort what is seen. But, we'll just skip that 'little fact.' Moving on. Most people only know the grade by what the certificate states. What is left out, however, is that there are color variations (such as blue-white and yellow-white) that can save you thousands. A diamond can be an "H" color, but look whiter than a "G" if the H has a bluish tint and the G has a yellowish tint. When looking at Color, ask about tint and go for blue.

Nor does a certificate always define clarity. Clarity refers to what inclusions or flaws there are in the diamond. For example, a VS2 means it has two very slight inclusions. Seems simple? Nope. A diamond that has two little feathers (that can barely be detected with a 10x loupe) has a VS2 grading. But, this grading also applies to a diamond that has a fissure or break (that is tiny enough but can compromise the diamond's strength) or a black culet - carbon dot at the tip of the diamond (which, once the polish wears off the diamond a bit, will make your diamond seem dirty and dull all the time). Inclusions are so tricky and impossible to regulate that three professional graders can, and mostly likely will, give you three different scores on a single diamond. So, to be a smart consumer, learn what inclusions actually compromise your purchase.

Last is carat weight. This one's a pip. Martin Rapaport developed a price list for dealers based on weight, then subdivided by color & clarity, to use as a pricing guideline. (Note: this is only for round stones. Fancy cuts have price guides too, but released monthly and nearly impossible to standardize.) This list is used around the world and helps to regulate the price of diamonds so that dealers have a starting point not to throw off the public too much with variance in price (price that is really first based on the other factors above). But, remember, a diamond that is cut shallow can weigh a half carat and look like a 3/4 carat; one that is cut deep can weigh one carat and look like a 3/4 carat, and so forth. Cut affects carat weight. Know the cut before worrying about buying a “two-carat” diamond. What are those two carats composed of? It's like buying a pound of meat and getting 3/4 of the pound delivered as fat. The Rapaport price sheet only utilizes the color & clarity components next to carat weight. You've got to somehow inform yourself about the cut!

A quick review -- Only carat weight and cut are measurable to a standard that anyone can scientifically quantify. Clarity and color are determined by the eye of a single beholder and different standards apply from person to person and certifying agency to agency. Carat weight is relative to a precision cut or a bad cut (a deep cut diamond will look dull after the polish wears and you're paying for diamond that sits deep in the prongs -- a shallow diamond has compromised brilliance and strength).

That's the truth about the 4C's. We buy diamonds based on the 4C's, and what we don't know about them is definitely manipulated. Get informed so you're not manipulated.

Appraisals / Resale

Resale. When you get a diamond ring appraised, it is a game of the insurance companies. Hear that. Insurance. When you buy a diamond ring, for example, you are “assured” by being told it is valued at X dollars. But do you believe that that is what you would get if you tried to sell it back the next day? Wrong. You'd be lucky to get half. You'd fare better if it were stolen and put in your insurance claim. Why? How can they do this? Because, once a diamond is set, they appraise the whole ring and bloat it according to retail price. You won't get retail money value back from a reseller! So, pop the diamond out to resell it? Nope. Once a diamond is set, it becomes subject to a different evaluator's idea of its value (even with a certificate). This appraiser will often tell you the diamond was faceted poorly, or that the inclusion is more severe, or that it is scratched, and by the time they polish it clean it will change the weight and so the carat weight will be less. And, you get scrap metal pricing for your gold or platinum setting.

When you buy a diamond ring, without a certificate on the diamond separately, you must rely on a jeweler to tell you the value of that stone (and they can't do an effective job when it is set). Oftentimes, consumers are purely at the mercy of this jeweler and a paltry price will be given for the ring. Even if you had three appraisers look at the ring, and they agreed on the quality, you still do not get the current Rapaport pricing for the diamond -- there's no law that says they have to, and they don't. Your ten thousand dollar diamond ring can get you about $3,500 back on the market (diamond, metal and all) .

But there is more to buying diamonds, and the overall manipulation, and the truth is often ugly…

I ask one thing: if you begin the document on the right, you read all the way through. Half-informed is misinformed.

The Industry - Read All About It

Now we look more at the industry than the diamonds themselves. It's a lot to ask of the average consumer…but don't be average. Get connected. Look with me, through the eyes of a woman who was in the industry and saw what you'll probably otherwise never see.

How do diamonds make it from the earth's center to your finger? Diamonds are mined by mining companies, handed off in parcels (at something called “sites”) while they are still “in the rough” (their natural state) to manufacturers who then cut and polish them. Manufacturers then either sell the sparkly diamonds “loose” or set them into jewelry and sell to distributors. Let's look first at the mining companies.

We start with De Beers because we have to. De Beers is a mining organization, a monopoly outlawed in America until recently, who holds a stockpile of an estimated 70% of ALL of the WORLD'S diamonds mined to date. Yes, all. If you buy a diamond, there is 98% chance it was mined by De Beers.
De Beers picks 50 major manufacturers who will receive parcels from them, and the favorite ones get the goods ones (the manufacturers who adhere to every rule De Beers sets out, such as who will best-push which cut diamonds De Beers wishes to promote that year), and the ones who didn't do what De Beers says get the bad ones, if they get diamonds at all.

Without diamonds from De Beers, a manufacturer stands little chance of competing. And, manufacturers have to be very careful they do not price a certain way, ask certain questions, or buck the system at all. For example, a manufacturer who, say, tries to promote humane labor conditions for miner workers, will get black-balled by De Beers. De Beers, according to the supply they wish to distribute to the world each season, says what is what, and the manufacturers' customers (wholesalers, distributors & major retailers) must obey. And, so what the big boys determine is what trickles down to the consumer this way. Manufacturers' hands are very much tied by the strings at De Beers. And, this has a huge impact because these manufacturers cannot support other miners who want to practice fair labor, or who don't want the price so escalated. If they do, they face receiving an "undesirable parcel" (goods no one wants and will never sell to the public) and basically be put out of business. De Beers can do as it wishes.

Now, shall we get into the industry's dirtiest secrets? Let's do a short version of that because, well, it's a dangerous subject, even for this one person's "opinion" to be floating around out there. Literally. We are talking about one of the top industries in the world, with a cartel in control, and there's a reason people in-the-know don't speak up too frankly or openly.

Perhaps it's enough to say that Congo, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Angola, etc. are places that have had whole towns “relocated” so miners can get to the land and see if diamonds are there. See, geologists guess where kimberlite pipes have spewed up diamonds from the earth's center. Then, teams have to go in and "look." In poor countries where the leaders are generally largely corrupt, De Beers pays the government to "get in there and look." (Where does one think the money for sophisticated machinery & protective weaponry is coming from? The poor country??)

What happens is, then, the country's government (wanting the money) instructs the police in the area to oversee the search and then the mining, and, magically, whole towns of people ‘move.' Atrocities around such relocations have been documented hundreds of times and again, magically, the authors or books never seem to make it to the correct authorities or the public. Another situation is when there are lethal conditions when looking for diamonds, like looking in live mine fields, since diamonds are often found in countries where local strife (like civil wars) has ravaged the country and mines were planted. In that case, instead of the locals being ‘moved,' men, women and children are employed to do the hunting, often ending up limbless. This subject touches upon conflict diamonds, but that is another subject exposed below. We can see what happens with this type of mining today in Angola and Sierra Leone Read it yourself.

Okay, so let's say we can still turn our heads so we can free our conscience to buy that lovely diamond ring. We can talk about the labor used instead and see how well we fare in continuing our blind lust. A sweat shop is a terrible thing? A coal mine? Well, you have to see a diamond mine to believe it. Conditions are better these days, but considering 80% of the diamonds we buy now and will continue to buy for hundreds of years were mined when things were beyond horrific, diamonds have a lot of blood on them. Mines, even still today, use encamped labor. That's p-c speak for imprisoned labor. Hundreds of men cannot leave the camp for a year while they work. Oh yes, they go willingly for the job because the mines have taken all their land away and they can't get in the family minivan to drive five hours to another day job. But, if we can ignore that too and just say they willingly agree to not even see children and wives for a year let's think, instead, of imprisoned men together for one full year. What can possibly happen during that year amongst men penned up? Let's just say there have been stories about how the mine managers help - they allow in several 'women' fora few hundred men once a month or so. Now, one must wonder why it is shocking to hear about the AIDS epidemic in Africa, especially South Africa where the kimberlite mines are. Well, these are the facts and mine workers are human, you know. How much do you abstain? You use condoms? Great! But, many diamond-producing countries have no access to condoms. Non-profit groups try to help and pass around literature about AIDS, but often 80% of the population is illiterate. Many of these countries also do not have medical facilities for early diagnosis to attempt to slow the spread of such a disease. So, husbands pass it on to wives, and so make children with AIDS. Since a large percentage of mine workers have AIDS, do the mining companies attempt to inform them, or provide early diagnosis? No. They actually fire them or discriminate against them once the disease is contracted! See this by the U.N. Then, should we hold the mines accountable for any of the AIDS crisis? Yes, but the public barely hears it, so how can we cry out?

The average lifespan of a mineworker is close to 47 years old. Only 47. See that in the papers anywhere? Why not? Why don't we hear about these things? The info is out there, sort of, but one would have to be really diligent. For example, who knows of a disease that just this year happened in Congo?…an infectious rat-bite disease stemming from the diamond mines and the workers who were bit caused half the country to abandon their homes and start fleeing the country. Nice, rat bites. What's happened to that disease, by the way? Is it spreading around the country or the globe, or did the medical community find a cure already? C'mon now, and it's a fatal disease. Mad Cow ain't got nothing on this disease and it's hard as heck to find follow-up information. What of Zaire, where they cut off hands, even heads, of those who do not fulfill mining quotas? It's a long, long list of atrocities. Real atrocities. Today.

It is a pretty impossible thought for First World consumers to let go of wanting to own a beautiful diamond. After all, diamonds have done nothing -- they are rocks. And, they look so pretty when they are polished. And, they were Granny's ring and Mom's earrings. But, maybe we can think about what diamonds are actually worth as we want them.
They are worth their rarity. It takes 10,000 pounds of dug up earth (and millions are located each year) to find a single one carat diamond. Then, how can we buy them so easily? In the early part of the last century, De Beers went and ravaged the earth, and they've flooded the American and Japanese markets where trend shopping rules. They made diamonds a trend by inventing a “tradition,” to give a solitaire diamond to get engaged. For example, in three years of marketing they obliterated a 5,000 year old engagement tradition in Japan (couples drank saki from the same cup when they got engaged). How? They waited until after WWII and spent billions to plaster huge billboards of enemy American soldiers proposing to Japanese women by offering a diamond ring. In America, it just took a couple million of dollars in advertising and key placements in films. We follow celebrity fashion, and one glance at any celeb, from Elizabeth Taylor to the entire hip-hop community…and millions of people are buying them up in bulk. We can get diamond jewelry at Kmart, for heaven's sake.

Still wanna bling bling? I wish I were Oprah so I can spread the truth faster. For now, here's what I can do, and I hope you'll refer other people to this page to read about the truth. I find it very, very sad especially that Hip-Hop celebrities seem to idolize diamonds, when they also call for identification with their recent roots. These roots were and are being torn up to get those diamonds. And, white and other-race people...we're all from Africa. If you can't imagine it, learn it -- it's fact, though hotly debated by right-wing and racist minds. Don't believe it? Read it in an clear, unbiased article. Out of Africa

This is not a remote subject, not a remote reality, if we are thinking humans no matter what or who we are. But, one minute here…This is NOT a call to stop buying diamonds completely. That would sink a vital industry for many nations, and we'd end up hurting these affected people even more than helping with a complete ban. Diamonds are a vital part of the economy of Africa, Russia, Australia and many other continents/countries. But, at least know the truth about diamonds and get involved. Ask your jeweler who their supplier is. Ask them if they know the mining conditions where the supply came from. Don't buy from them if they don't know, because this will push the issue back to the manufacturers, who will push it back to De Beers! If consumers make it an issue, it WILL affect the mining and labor practices positively. The American diamond-buying public is the largest market in the world. We can change this industry by being educated consumers, and being humane humans demanding improvements in the labor practices surrounding diamonds. You don't have to stop buying or wanting diamonds entirely.

Meanwhile, I'll avoid diamonds in my designs as a quiet redirection of what we consider “precious” in our jewelry fashions and until ALL the facts get out there. My voice is out there. Help make it a chorus. Just speak up.

One last note...The new term "conflict diamonds" is flying about, and I personally find the Kimberly Process initiative (who is certifying who belongs to countries against conflict diamonds) suspicious since they list "participants" providing non-conflict diamonds to include places like Angola and Sierra Leone -- places we know produce the majority of these black market diamonds. See their 'list' here. I'm also slightly suspicious of Diamonds for Humanity and One-Sky, organizations selling diamonds who are supposedly 'conflict free,' as no one says where the diamonds are from, and why they know they are 'clean.' I wish I could fully support these things, but I've seen enough to know to be suspicious. Read here for my discussion on Conflict Diamonds

Where to get a clean diamond? I just do not know anymore. Being outside that inner circle now, the truth is almost impossible to unearth. As I know, I promise, I will tell..