Diamond prices are down 60% since a 2011 high, and they are still falling. It’s not all down to lab-grown diamonds, demand is down too, especially in China.
No one can lab-grow gold yet, so its rarity and scarcity protect its value, but that will end too. It’s just a question of when. China launched an asteroid touch-down mission this week, which will make it the 4th country/region to do so, after Europe, the US & Japan.
How soon will it be feasible to mine asteroids? Who knows, but a breakthrough in space propulsion might mean the prospect happens quickly when it does. It’s possible gold has twenty years or less of being high value left.
The $80 Billion Diamond Market Crash Leaves De Beers Reeling
they don’t mine them. just process them. not sure it’s lowering the cost of raw diamonds will change the processing cost.
its morning and haven’t had my coffee, so I’m on instinct. I feel like it would lower the cost.
The processing cost is negligible compared the sales prices. Same as the cost of raw diamonds.
Diamonds are mostly a scam to part people from their money for literally a shiny rock.
it is, but if they maintain a monopoly, then cheaper raw diamonds will only increase profit.
although I’m assuming cheap synthetic diamonds are processed in other places.
Yeah, that’s what I mean. People have been overpaying for diamonds for a very long time, mostly because they buy a diamond specifically because it’s expensive.
A diamond isn’t 1000x better at being a shiny piece of glass on top of an engagement ring than e.g. a cubic zirconia. But it’s about 1000x better at showing that you paid 1000x the amount of money that you would have paid for a cubic zirconia.
And because of that, if the price of raw diamonds drops, the price of processed diamonds won’t change significantly, because the production cost of e.g. a diamond ring doesn’t matter for the asking price.