Janet Pritchard, age 12, of Wichita, Kansas for her question:
Why are diamonds so valuable?
Some things are valuable because they are useful. Others are worth cherishing for their beauty. Others are worth looking at because they are so rare. It so happens that the diamond rates tops in all these categories. Its sparkling crystals are among the earth’s most beautiful minerals. Many industrial jobs depend upon its usefulness and diamonds are rare, very rare and hard to find.
The total area of the earth’s surface is almost 197 million square miles. And throughout this enormous area, worthwhile quantities of diamonds have been found in only about half a dozen small spots. What’s more, even in the richest mines, diamonds are few and far between and the stones come in very small sizes. On the average, 100 tons of rocky dirt must be sifted to yield one pound of diamonds. And of this precious haul, only a few may be suitable for sparkling gem stones.
Naturally, all this toilsome labor must be paid for, which adds a great deal to the price. But if rarity were the whole story, most likely nobody would go to all the trouble of digging out diamonds. Actually, these remarkable stones have two other qualities that make them so costly. Some are dazzlingly beautiful, others are outstandingly useful.
We are told that a diamond is made of common carbon, which rates high on the list of plentiful elements in the earth’s crust. Coal is mostly carbon; the graphite in a so called lead pencil is a form of carbon. Diamond is a crystal form of carbon atoms that happens to be the hardest of the earth’s natural minerals. Therein lays the secret of its usefulness.
On the scale of mineral hardness, diamond occupies Class Ten all by itself. This means that it can cut and scratch all the other natural minerals, and not a one of them can scratch it back. It can cut down through the hardest rocks to the earth’s deepest buried treasure.
Diamond chips are set into the revolving disks that drill for oil. Diamond grit and diamond dust are used for sharpening and polishing jobs that no other substance can do.
No, they don’t use glittering diamond gems for these work a day chores. Most diamonds are stained with dirty colors and flawed with internal cracks. Nevertheless, their super hard crystal structure is the same. They are industrial diamonds, costly because they are rare and can do valuable work.
A rare gem diamond comes from the earth looking somewhat like a chunk of frosted glass. It may be a bumpy lump or shaped like a pair of roundish pyramids with their bases joined together. In any case, the glittering glassy sparkle is hidden under a misty skin.
This is called a rough diamond. It must be cut and polished by experts, highly skilled and highly trained. Top diamond cutters are almost as rare as top quality diamonds. Naturally they charge high fees for their delicate work—and naturally this adds to the cost of the already costly diamond.