Diamonds aren’t forever

By THE DATA TEAM

THE Gahcho Kué diamond mine is an astonishing endeavour. Built by De Beers in the frozen tundra of Canada’s Northwest Territories, it is the biggest new mine in the world in over a decade. De Beers has no plans for another. The global supply of diamonds is expected to peak within a few years. This marks a turning-point for an industry built on manipulated supply and skilfully cultivated demand.

De Beers was founded in 1888 to mine diamonds in South Africa; by 1902 it accounted for 90% of the world market. The firm boosted demand through clever marketing, penning slogans—memorably, “a diamond is forever”—and inventing social rules, urging men to spend two months’ pay on a gift for their affianced. Tight control of supply continued until the 1990s. New discoveries in Canada, a civil war in Angola and the collapse of the Soviet Union all made supply harder to manage, meaning that more diamonds were sold outside the cartel. In 2000 De Beers said it would stop strictly controlling supply, selling instead to carefully vetted buyers.