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Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession

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At one point in the book there is a brief description of the opening remarks at an international gathering of diamond merchants. The featured speaker was explaining the two reasons diamonds have value, "vanity and greed". For those unfamiliar with the diamond industry and the control that DeBeer's has held over the prices of diamonds, the book's contents may be somewhat of a shock. The monopoly this company holds is so complete, the executives of the company cannot come to The United States for they are likely to be subpoenaed if they did. Events described in the book of major new diamond finds together with owners may greatly diminish DeBeer's hold on their monopoly, but they would likely still control 50% of the world's market.

Massive diamonds and a variety of stones that are rare due to their color understandably command whatever price a person is willing to pay. The diamonds that are on the hands of women throughout the world are extremely common, unless they are wearing a golf ball size rock like Elizabeth Taylor. One example the author shares of market manipulation is with a relatively small but perfect stone. When graded d-flawless a diamond is just as the description describes, the price is an entirely different matter. DeBeer's has manipulated the market so that at times such a stone would cost a person $10,000 and when they get greedy or angry, the price becomes $70,000. The price of this grade and size of stone will also change dramatically based on where you make a purchase, head to Tiffany's and you pay for their 5th Avenue location and their name. Head to a less flashy address in the same city, and you will save many thousands of dollars.

Matthew Park also covers a wide variety of topics related to these stones, the history of some of the most famous gems, the efforts to control the sale of stones that finance wars, and the people that are out searching and finding massive fortunes of their own. One particularly fascinating tale is of a young woman who finds an area that will yield billions of dollars of value in Canada. At 24 years of age it was her persistence to keep her father interested, and not walking from a site that brought the find to fruition. The other aspect that is covered is the art of taking a rough stone, and then cleaving and polishing it to a gem. One interesting example was the creation of, "The Centenary Stone". The man who cut and polished the stone took 3 years to create the masterpiece. He spent an entire year studying the rough before making a single move to change it.

This book will whet your appetite for reading more about this phenomenon, for the book covers many areas but does not have the length to cover them in depth. It was also unfortunate that all of the pictures of these remarkable jewels were in black and white, which did little to visually communicate how stunning they are.

After hearing a bit about the cable-based feature exposing the incredible monopolistic hold De Beers has on the diamond industry and the associated corruption, crime and cruelty associated with diamond mining and the inherent competition, I became acutely aware that the bobbles adorning our fingers, wrists, necks and ears came at a very high price--human as well as financial. To my surprise, I ran across DIAMOND and hoped it would delve deeper into this mysteriously clandestine industry. Matthew Hart unravels the mystery quite well.

Hart has a leg up on most journalists penning a book on this trade. His position as editor of the industry trade magazine, "Rapaport Diamond Report," provides him with the expertise to report on this cabal industry as well as the background and knowledge to impart the history of the diamond trade. However, Hart does the reader one better by being a genuinely gifted storyteller.

Hart lays out the basic foundation and history of diamond geology and its shrouded history. From yarns about hustlers and theives to the geological formations known as pipes, Hart imparts the beauty and dark side of the trade. And, as mentioned, Hart casts his line into the vast monopoly known as De Beers. He explains how De Beers has managed to control the flow of diamonds not only to the wholesale "site" markets but, more recently, to the retail market as well. We learn how the Oppenheimer family has ruled this industry with an iron fist and a deft touch. Further, and strangely to this reader, we learn the origins of the De Beers name...a totally unexpected twist.

Hart informs the reader of great finds and great adventures. He focuses on several large diamonds discoveries - an 81-carat pink from the jungles of Brazil and the discovery of Canada's first major diamond mine. One of the more adventurous stories is that of Eira Thomas, a 24-year-old female geologist who played a major role in the Canadian find. We learn of the painstaking 3-year study and comiseration prior to the actual cutting of the 599-carat Centenary diamond as well as the discovery of the 3,107-carat Cullinan diamond (the largest "rough" on record). Hart even takes the reader behind the scenes to an advertising agency where a mentally exhausted executive, in a 11th-hour blitz of creative brio, coins the enduring phrase "A Diamond is Forever."

Hart is engaging, cogent and very well informed. Anyone wanting to learn more about this industry and the mysterious wonder of the "beautiful rock," will find this book fascinating reading.

At a conference on diamonds in 1997, a speaker expressed his confidence in the diamond market. It was founded on two supports, he said: vanity and greed, and humans could be relied upon for a perpetual supply of both. It isn't surprising, then, that there has been a multimillion dollar advertising campaign stretching over the last decades to emphasize the happier side, the romance of diamonds. Romance or not, there is someone eager to steal a diamond from a mine, or to divert rough diamonds from their appointed cutters and polishers, or to jump a claim on a supposed diamond field, or fence diamonds to sponsor a war, or jack up prices artificially. "Malfeasance rustles in the background of the diamond world like a snake in dry grass," writes Matthew Hart in _Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession_ (Walker & Co.), a wide-ranging and entertaining look at different components of the diamond business.

One cannot tell the story of diamonds without telling about De Beers, which started cornering the market in diamonds over a century ago; but much of this story is about how De Beers is losing control over the diamond market. De Beers executives do not travel to the United States, because they would be arrested; there are charges, the latest from 1994, for price fixing. ("The most senior managers of the world's preeminent diamond company are thus effectively prevented from setting foot in their largest market.") The main assaults on De Beers have not been legal, of course, but simple economic competition. Diamond mines in Russia, Canada, and Australia are now profitable, and India, which is not a primary supplier of diamonds, is busy supplying cut and polished jewels which other mines formerly sold only for industrial use. Hart is best on the skullduggery, large and small, in the diamond trade, which is taken for granted. He tells about the history of some famous gems, like the Hope Diamond, and describes the complicated process of cutting a diamond in some detail.

Hart has plenty of good stories. He has been the mining editor for the New York monthly the _Rapaport Diamond Report_, and has visited the exotic areas he tells about. Diamonds in the rough are an annual six billion dollar industry; those same diamonds wind up in the jewelry stores going for 56 billion, and Hart has surveyed the process from beginning to end. There are summaries here of geology and history, as well as the technology of cutting and polishing the gems we cannot get enough of. Hart is not a flashy writer, but the many facets of this lucrative and larcenous trade make scintillating reading.

Although the title of the book does little to convey the true allure of the book, I found it to be an excellent piece of engaging research. Mr. Hart demonstrates not just "knowledge" about diamonds but a complete mastery in the field. He grabs reader attention through very interesting stories about major finds, tracing the provenance of several well known gems, highlighting the history behind the treasure and managing to pack in a good dose of easily understandable geology as well. All this makes for a very interesting book. As one interested in economics and business, I found the Mr. Hart's treatment of the business dimensions to be very insightful.

Diamond mining is apparently a very risky business that comes complete with its own cast of colorful characters, schemers, backstabbers, awfully unethical companies, very talented artisans. Mr. Hart captures the nuances of the careers of this varied cast and does so with a thoroughness that is seldom seen. For example he discusses the intricacies of polishing and cleaving diamonds and brings the entire process to life through his vivid descriptions of the skilled people in New York, and Antwerp who make it happen. The way in which an expert labors, actually obsesses, about the potential cut and the number of facets that he'd like to use on a piece of diamond rough, the mathematical precision with which he brings his vision to life and the single minded attention to detail in an enterprise that could make or break fortunes with the tiny slip of a cutters wheel.....remarkable prose. His discussion of the evolution of the Centenary diamond owned by De Beers is scintillating in that it illustrates the dilemmas that the artisans face when they have to turn a rough diamond into an object of desire.

In equal measure he discusses the developments in Brazil, India and South Africa showing how industry performance drivers are changing and how these factors make or break the viability of new finds. His elucidation of the latest developments in geology and prospecting are equally interesting even to those with a passing interest.

I know I am waxing poetic about this book. I really feel very strongly positive about the contents that Mr. Hart has placed in his reader's hands. Thank you for a wonderful read Mr. Hart.

There is a type of stone which, when polished, refracts light more than other stones. All the world wonders about it.

This is an interesting overview of diamond history and business. It details the history of humankind's fascination with one of the rarest of gems-the carbon tetrahedron. From the jungles of South America, to Canada's arctic north, to the Siberian tundra, to South and Central Africa, to the west coast of Africa, the Australian outback and elsewhere humans have searched for the mother lode-the diamond kimberlite/lamproite pipe-one of the rarest of geological formations, but also one of the richest of treasures-many billions of dollars worth in the richest pipes. And of course, where there is money, there is every breed of deceit, vulgarity and excess. In Africa, (and elsewhere), many have died from civil wars or have been murdered from the lust which seems to spring from this crystal refraction.

The major players are outlined-eg DeBeers, BHP, and a long list of wily rogues and speculators who make and break their fortune on the flippancy of billion year old crustal pressure distribution. The process of diamond formation is described- from the formation of kimberlitic/lamproitic magma deep within the earth, to their eruptive surface craters, which are, incidentally, quite rare in geological time.

Diamond indicators -purple 'G10' garnets, and green diopsides-indicate to geologists where diamonds may be found. Kids played with shiny bright stones, and diamonds could be picked out of the walls of brick farmhouses in 19th century South Africa, before the fantastically rich Kimberly and Premier pipes were found. Mine managers laughed when thousand-carat gems landed on their table, and threw them out the window in disbelief. Millions had also been washed down to the African Atlantic coast, where they are trawled today for considerable profit, the sea washing away the weaker gems and producing a high proportion of better gems. From the diamond mines of South Africa rose Cecil Rhodes, the 3,106 carat Cullinen gem, Ernest Oppenhemier, and De Beers, along with substantial wealth, slavery and a good deal of imperialist oppression. (J. Reader contends in "Africa-biography of a continent", that the strongly segregated capital-labour relations of the gold and gem mines of South Africa formed a precursor to Apartheid).

Grade, shape, size and impurities within diamonds determine their prices, but it is not clear whether the finders always benefit, the money passes up the chain from the worker's mud and slime to the corporate mud and slime, and finally into what most people see-sparkles in shiny glass shop-cases.

Some of the stories related to diamond stealing are worth a mention. In Namibia they would tie diamonds to pigeon feet and accomplaces would retrieve them from bird nests, high in the trees outside a diamond camp. Diamond-laden arrows would be shot over fences, until the time one hit a security truck patrolling the camp. Bodily orifices act like built-in security codes, unless you have the inclination for that kind of investigation. Re-sorted batches would be dispatched slightly lighter than the initial dispatch, since re-sorting is apparently not the same thing as initial sorting, at least not to some accountants, and to some dispatching managers (Australia). Decimal points and the significance of significant figures was lost in some London sorting houses, where mathematical finesse slumbered. Russian entrepenurial dealers enjoyed a game of re-distributing Russian diamond wealth after the breakup of Russian political wealth. Civil wars in recent years have been fought in Africa over shiny stones- where they are, who owns them, who finds them, who sells them and and who owns those who sell them. Coroporate business is fought elsewhere over the same pieces of stone.

It's not all exploitation and corruption of course. Legitimate finds have made people and nations wealthy, particularly in Botswana, Australia and elsewhere. Lustrous gems have long been a symbol for commitment, love, and financial, personal and emotional investment, and have facilitated 'tying the knot', (rightly or wrongly) for millions, since time immemorial.

In the book a quote is given that the entire diamond business rests on two supports-vanity and greed, in which the human race could be relied upon for a steady supply of both. This is not entirely true. There is also love, in which a steady supply, is also assured.

And so the show goes on, but not without purpose or merit. She (or he) might love one more if only one could show her (or him) that refractory sparkle. A piece of glass might also do a similar thing, which too many, to their dismay, have paid good money for.

It is hard for me to express how much I enjoyed this book. Matthew Hart has shown himself to be a tremendous writer who describes the evolution of the diamond industry in a very captivating way. As one who never took much to geology, Mr. Hart's brilliant prose and the stories themselves made this an excellent book. This book deserves the highest of praises.

There are various different levels of appeal with this book. Persons interested in the hard surface of the science in this business will enjoy reading about mineralogy, how to select excavation sites, and what constitutes a good "kimberlite pipe" which is the cone-shaped geological feature comprised of diamond bearing strata. Those that find the sparkle of a financial story appealing will be captivated from the first chapter, when Hart describes the bonanza that came the way of three small-time Brazilian miners. They uncovered a 81-carat pink diamond and ended up netting a glittering sum of 2 million. There are stories that have a bit of a rough edge to them and also required a bit of digging into the past. History buffs will approve. Here Hart is talking about the secretive and somewhat clouded history of the DeBeers cartel and it's current attempts to maintain control of 80% of the world's rough diamonds. What other term but "chipping away" could best describe the chapter on Eira Thomas, a young female geologist who discovered a huge cluster of high-grade diamond pipes in the Canadian Actic. This discovery more than anything else has begun to loosen DeBeer's grip on the industry. And finally for those who wish to get down in the trenches there are the descriptions of the "diamond conflicts". This is the warfare in Angola and Sierra Leone that is finaced by diamond revenues. Here we see the dirty and bloody side of the story.

Characters abound. The founders of DeBeers - Cecil Rhodes, Barney Barnato and Ernest Oppenheimer, the "garimpeiros" or miners of Brazil and Eira Thomas. The journey is around the world, from South Africa, Angola, and Sierra Leone, to Siberia, London, and the Canadian arctic. DIAMOND: A JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF AN OBSESSION is an appropriate title for the contents of this well written and very informative book.

I came away from this book with a picture of the global market for diamonds and how it's all tied together, from the palatial desks of moguls in London to the shacks of miners in Africa. Author Hart covers it all -- how diamonds are mined, processed, marketed, stolen; the ever-weakening power wielded by the De Beers cartel; the new low-end processors in India who have changed the dynamics of the trade. He does an especially good job elucidating the complex world of "war diamonds" emnating from bloody civil-warring states like Angola and Sierra Leone.

Author Hart is well-qualified for the task, having written on diamonds for numerous publications; but his ability to initiate a really engrossing story and drop it in mid-stream without taking us all the way there was frustrating for me as a reader. There were too many times when he started with an intriguing aspect of the trade, but moved too quickly to another aspect, leaving the reader hanging. How do the garipeiros, who found the "big pink" along a Brazilian river in chapter 1, live? Who gave them their $2 million for the big pink? Was it delivered in cash in a paper bag? How did the garipeiros spend the money so fast? After Eira Thomas finds a diamond pipe in the frozen Canadian north, he ends with this: "the pipes that Thomas found... contain some 138 million carats of diamonds. The deposit will support a mine for twenty years and supply the market with an annual $400 million worth of rough" -- that's it; that's all. What happened to Eira Thomas? Did she go on to find more pipes? Exactly how do the Canadian pipes alter the dynamics of De Beer's cartel? For a book like this, the devil is in the details -- the details that provide color and texture and take the readers along for the ride. Too often, Hart leaves out the details and doesn't finish the story, leaving the reader frustrated. The book would have really been enhanced by a few color plates of diamonds -- famous diamonds, rough diamonds, tiny brown diamonds cut in India, the big pink -- even if only two page's worth. In addition, as with so many books nowadays, copyediting is below par, with some really egregious typos in the text.

Still, this book is a great overview, and I feel that I learned a lot. Despite the limitations, anyone who loves gems, jewelry, commodities, and the romantic world of high-roller big business will enjoy this book.

First, this book can be read in two sittings. With that in my mind, most of its flaws can be forgiven. Chief among these is the fact that the book is essentially a collection of anecdotes and stray stories, rather than a straightforward historical narrative or discussion. The end result is not very gratifying and only slightly edifying. (The most interesting factoid: De Beer's marketing suggestion that one spend 2 months' salary on an engagement ring, is 1 month in Europe and 3 months in Japan.) Some minor, but frustrating factual inconsistencies, e.g., the # of grades into which De Beers sorts its diamonds, as well as some sloppy editing.

It's funny that the book's cover includes a blurb from Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief. She pulls off this style of complex storytelling much more effectively and with a much clearer thesis that runs consistently throughout.

p.187
This book made me glad that my wife and I twenty years ago decided to get neither the traditional diamond engagment nor wedding rings. I gave her a nice strand of pearls (probably another book out there) and we exchanged diamondless rings when we wed.
Chapter 9: Diamond Wars was horrifying in the sheer numbers of dead and maimed. Whenever teenage boys are fed drugs to go and slaughter civilians, there's more to it than idealogy, it's fed by sheer corporate earnings.
Recommended further updated reading: the reports on [...] account how the Kimberley Process, designed to eradicate the conflict diamonds, has in part been used to legitimize them.