Diamonds are expensive and still, they are the most sought-after gemstones in the world. Have you ever thought what’s the exact reason for such high prices and why people are ready to pay the premium for best quality diamonds? Let’s take a look and find the answers.
Not All Diamonds are Expensive
Yes, there is no typo – not all diamonds are expensive. Most diamonds found in nature have a lot of imperfections and defects, which makes them relatively cheap. These low-quality diamonds are usually used in industry as parts of various tools.
Most diamonds mined are not fit to be used in jewellery. The diamonds of passable quality are rare. The stones you can see in the jewellery stores have already been sorted out of mined diamonds according to a number of criteria which makes them sellable and relatively pricey as a result.
Diamonds of Good Colour are Rare
Colour is one of the main characteristics of diamond quality. The whiter or more colourless a stone, the more expensive it is.
The high price charged for colourless and near-colourless diamonds is a result of their rarety. Not all diamonds are white. In fact, most diamonds mined come with noticeable yellowish tints and only a small percentage of them can be classified as colourless or near-colourless. Moreover, even the stones with faint yellowish hues are rare to find.
The Foxfire diamond, the largest known uncut, gem-quality diamond mined in North America, weighing 187 carats. Photo credit: Amadena Investments LLCHigh-Clarity Diamonds are Rare
Another important feature of a diamond is its clarity.
Most stones found in nature contain a lot of inclusions or internal flaws. It’s really hard to find a stone that has only a couple of visible flaws not to mention flawless diamonds.
And if it’s hard to find a diamond that has either a good colour or good clarity, it’s even harder to find a stone that has both.
Bigger Diamonds are Harder to Find
If you check the prices for diamonds of different carat weights, you will notice that the bigger the stone, the more pricey it is per carat. The reason is that bigger diamonds are harder to find than smaller ones.
The bigger diamonds that have both high clarity and good colour are even rarer.
The Lesedi La Rona the third-largest colourless diamond ever found, weighing 1,111 caratsExcellent Cut Diamonds Always Cost the Premium
In order to be prepared for sale, raw diamonds are cut into a certain shape, faceted and polished.
To exhibit maximum brilliance, the stone needs to have ceratin proportions and these proportions also determine the quality of the cut. In addition, diamond cutters try to maximize carat weight while keeping the stone’s clarity possibly high. This is not an easy task.
Oftentimes, it is not possible to cut a diamond and keep it highly proportional, clear and big at the same time. In this case, the cutter has to cut off a portion of the stone that contains visible flaws to make it of higher clarity and sacrifice the weight. Or, the cutter may keep the bigger size but sacrifice ideal proportions.
As you see, achieving an optimal balance between cut, clarity and carat weight is not so easy, that’s why proportional stones that are big and clean are rare and expensive.
