About 80% of diamond production goes to industrial purposes (Shutterstock)
Diamonds are often associated in people's minds with wealth, elegance, and luxury, as they have a stunning sparkle, but 80% of this precious stone extracted is used primarily for industrial purposes, and a researcher into its major producers and the method of extracting and manufacturing it may discover amazing facts, as the number of its producers from countries is only 22. The top 10 producing countries account for more than 99% of global production.
The Canadian economic website "Visual Capitalist" published part of the data of the American "Kimberly Process" organization for the year 2022, in addition to statistics prepared by Ashok Damaruprashad, a specialist in diamonds and precious metals who resides in South Africa.
1- The largest diamond producers in the world
Russia topped the world in diamond production in 2022, with a total of approximately 42 million carats (a carat is a unit of measuring the physical weight of a diamond and is equal to 0.2 grams).
Russia's large production of diamonds and its topping the list of the most mining countries indicate that it was able to circumvent the numerous sanctions imposed on it as a result of the war with Ukraine that broke out in February 2022.
According to the Canadian website, the difficulties related to tracking the sources of diamonds is one of the factors that helped Russia overcome sanctions restrictions.
Russia outperforms its peers in diamond production by a wide margin, while Botswana comes in second place with a total of 24.8 million carats (4.96 million grams).
The third place went to Canada, which produced 16.2 million carats (3.24 million grams), followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo in fourth place, with a total of 9.9 million carats.
This is Visual Capitalist's list of the 22 largest countries producing rough diamonds:
Russia 41.92 million carats.
Botswana 24.75 million carats.
Canada 16.24 million carats.
Democratic Republic of the Congo 9.9 million carats.
South Africa 9.66 million carats.
Angola 8.76 million carats.
Zimbabwe 4.46 million carats.
Namibia 2.05 million carats.
Lesotho 727 thousand and 737 carats.
Sierra Leone 668 thousand and 970 carats.
Tanzania 375 thousand and 533 carats.
Brazil: 158,420 carats.
Guinea 128 thousand and 771 carats.
Central Africa 118 thousand and 44 carats.
Guyana: 83,382 carats.
Ghana 82 thousand and 500 carats.
Liberia 52 thousand and 165 carats.
Ivory Coast 3904 carats.
Congo Brazzaville 3904 carats.
Cameroon 2431 carats.
Venezuela 1665 carats.
Mali 92 carats.
Diamonds: the duality of quality and value
Diamonds differ from oil and gold in that the 10 largest producing countries account for about 99% of global production, compared to the distribution of oil and gold in similar proportions among the largest number of countries, according to the report.
It is not necessary for the person who produces more to earn more in diamond accounts, as quality, purity and cut are factors that determine the value. Visual Capitalist indicated that Botswana produced 59% of what Russia produced in diamonds in 2022, but its actual value amounted to approximately 5 billion dollars, i.e. one and a half times higher. What Russia gained.
In the same context, Angola is ranked sixth in the list of largest diamond producers in 2022, while it ranks third in the ranking of the largest in value.
Botswana and Angola, along with South Africa, Canada and Namibia, produce high-quality diamonds as jewelry, while industrial use is the main goal of diamond mining in other countries including Russia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Increasing diamond production does not mean higher returns (Shutterstock)
The 20 largest countries in terms of the price value of diamonds in 2022
This is the Canadian website’s list of the top 20 countries in terms of the price value of diamonds in 2022:
Botswana $5 billion.
Russia: $3.55 billion.
Angola: $1.96 billion.
Canada: $1.9 billion.
South Africa: $1.53 billion.
Namibia: $1.23 billion.
Zimbabwe $424 million.
Lesotho: $314 million.
Sierra Leone: $134 million.
Tanzania: $110 million.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: $65 million.
Brazil: $30 million.
Liberia: $18 million.
Central Africa: $15 million.
Guyana: $14 million.
Guinea $6 million.
Ghana $3 million.
Cameroon: $250,000.
Congo Brazzaville: $200,000.
Ivory Coast: $160,000.
The world's continents with the largest diamond production in 2022
It is not a surprise that Africa will lead the world's continents in diamond production in 2022 - whether in terms of weight or value - by 51 and 66%, respectively.
These are the regions in the world that produce the largest diamonds in 2022, according to “Visual Capitalist”:
Africa 51.4%.
Europe 34.9%.
North America 13.5%.
South America 0.2%.
The continents of the world with the highest price for diamonds in 2022
Africa 66.4%.
North America 52.8%.
Europe 32.9%.
South America 2.4%.
The largest importers of diamonds
According to the Global Economy website, the world's largest diamond importers by value are as follows:
India: $18.8 billion.
UAE: $10.4 billion.
Israel $2 billion.
Botswana: $1.66 billion.
China billion dollars.
South Africa: $802 million.
Singapore: $791 million.
Lebanon: $306 million.
Armenia: $288 million.
US $209 million.
Despite this, diamond mining in Africa is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating back less than 200 years, according to the Canadian website. The discovery and valorization of diamonds began two thousand years ago in India, before later spreading westward to Egypt and the Roman Empire.
At the beginning of the 20th century, diamond production began on a large scale, first in South Africa and then in other African countries.
According to a study published by the American Gemological Institute, Africa produced more than 98% of the world's diamonds during the period from 1889 to 1959.
In the second half of the 20th century, the term “blood diamonds” appeared, which means financing rebellion or crime movements from diamond revenues in conflict zones in Africa, according to the Canadian website.
Stages of diamond manufacturing
The “Mining for Schools” website of the South African Minerals Council published what it called “the life cycle of diamond mining,” according to the following nine stages:
Exploration
Geologists use several methods to explore kimberlite rocks, which are the main source of diamonds, including remote sensing via satellite and reconnaissance sampling.
Any kimberlite rocks discovered are then drilled to see if they contain economic quantities of diamonds. Analysis of the samples gives indications about quality, cost and value, and on this basis the decision is made whether to start mining or not.
Mining
There are two types of mining, one is "open pit mining" and "underground mining".
Open pit mining
It means removing the layers of sand and rocks directly above the kimberlite, and then the ore is crushed through blasting, as one blast can crush about 45 thousand tons of ore.
The excavators load the ore into transport trucks and transport it to the primary ore crusher to begin the diamond extraction process. The Venice mine in South Africa is an example of this type of mining, according to the report.
Underground mining
It depends on digging a tunnel inside the earth's crust through a kimberlite pipe. The tunnels are constructed on two levels separated by a distance of 25 meters vertically.
Raw processing
Diamonds are extracted from the rough through the following stages:
Crushing
: Once the raw material carrying diamonds and gravel is collected, it is transferred to a primary crusher that reduces the size of the diamonds into smaller pieces that can be handled better, each of which does not exceed 150 millimeters, and a second crusher is used in order to reduce the size further.
Refining
: This stage witnesses the process of removing excess material and excluding any material that is less than 15 mm, because extracting diamonds from such very small pieces is very expensive.
Dense media separation
: During this stage, the ore containing the diamonds is mixed with a solution of ferrosilicon powder and water that is measured to a certain relative density, aiming to form a layer rich in diamonds.
Extraction
: At this stage, the layer with high concentration of diamonds is subjected to a series of operations that include magnetic and
Cleaning, sorting and packing
: The diamonds resulting from the extraction process are delivered to a sorting facility, where they are cleaned in an acidic solution and then washed before being sorted. The diamonds are sorted according to size (in carats) and then each size is classified into different categories of quality based on the color and clarity of the stone. In this The stage separates gem-quality diamonds from those used for industrial purposes.
Sorting industrial diamonds
Industrial diamonds are viewed as a by-product in the gemstone market. About 80% of the diamonds that are mined are not suitable for use as gemstones, and are used in the manufacture of cutting and grinding tools.
Rough diamond sales
Rough diamonds are typically sold through auctions, during which participants view the lots and submit secret electronic bids before the auction is awarded to the highest bidder for each lot.
Rough diamonds are sold to dealers through a diamond trading license, and dealers usually send the diamonds to specialists who cut and polish them before selling them to retailers or through diamond exchanges.
Cutting and polishing
Cutting and polishing diamonds is an art and an exact science at the same time, and one person needs years of training to become a professional in cutting and polishing them.
Selling diamond jewelry
Diamonds prepared as gemstones (jewelry) are sold on licensed 30-inch diamond exchanges around the world.
Closure and rehabilitation
Once a mine's diamond reserves are exhausted, its owner must close and rehabilitate the site, leveling the underground tunnels and closing the entrances.
Source: Al Jazeera + websites