gems market ah diamonds has been coveted and admired for thousands of years for their beauty. they were formed billions of years ago and are so rare because so few are able to survive the difficult journey from the pits of the earth to reach the earth's surface. from the diamonds that are being mind today, only about 20 percent are high enough quality to be sold on the diamond market as jewelry. but while diamonds are rare, they aren't as well as you think. throughout the 19th century de beers maintained a monopoly on the global diamonds mines. the cartel with stockpile diamonds, limits supply and drive up demand and costs, and it would only release enough diamonds to meet annual demand, giving the market the allusion that diamonds were exceedingly rare. but why is the

diamond so expensive? perhaps it has to do with the amount of work it takes to mine of diamond. diamond mining operates some of the most resource intensive activities, consuming large amounts of water and energy. you 1st have to mind the diamond extract it from its or about a 133000000. carrots of rough diamonds are produced each year with botswana and russia being the largest producers between them, they have half the world's production. and for diamond producers control about 65 percent of the market. to be years, the russian producer, al rosa, and diversified mining companies, b. h. p, and rio tinto. large commercially viable diamond mines are a rarity. and today, there are only about 20 major diamond mines in the world, and only 11 of them make up 62 percent of the world's production by carrot and no matter how big the mine is, you have to move a lot of rock to

a very small number of diamonds at even the richest mine, one ton of rock contains only about 1.4 carrots of rough diamonds. now that's less than point 3 grams. on average a producer cells rough diamonds for $134.00, a carrot, giving it a profit margin of 20 to 24 percent. the minor then has to sort and sell them as to re gray, diamonds or industrial grade diamonds, cutters and polishes or next who by rough diamonds, from the producers, and cut them appropriately and polish them to release their true potential. the majority of cutting and polishing is now done in india, followed by china because of low labor costs. jewelry manufacturers then by the polish stones, usually add exhibitions, create the piece, set the stones, and give them 2 retailers to sell finished jewelry to customers. manufacturers and retailers, depending on the prestige of the brand, can enjoy a premium profit margin of up to 40 percent. but now,

man main diamonds are growing in popularity to the average person. these gems are indistinguishable from traditionally mine diamonds. and these live grown diamonds or l g g 's are less expensive and considered an environmentally friendly alternative to mining. they take weeks to create and plaza reactors and have been recognized as quote, diamonds by the u. s. federal trade commission since 2018. so for more or less bring in eating goal on diamond industry analyst at diamond research and data. so how have the attitudes towards lab created, diamond or l gds shifted in recent years. it seems to be gaining traction with the market expected to double by $6000000000.00 by 2025. well, actually interesting question. so lab has been around for the number of years

and have entered the retail marketplace as components in jewelry around 2016 by 2018. they were really. ready already a thing, and at that point they were, if we looked at the old diamonds, that is natural, diamonds and lab, grow them together. lab going over time are presented about 2 percent of the business to $1.00 to point to the end. really how you measure that we know that that figure has increase and then. ready doubled almost every year and it currently stands at around 10 percent. so in terms of value, there's definitely a doubling almost every year. i don't know for reach 6000000000,

but there is no doubt that this is a, an item of growing interest in the consumer market. and, and we're seeing it growing rapidly at this point. and while l g d 's are trying to position themselves as more at the goal compared with the traditional history of diamond mining. are they really when it takes so much energy to produce them? and most of them are made in china. woo, there isn't one answer to this question. in other words, since it's an industry, some companies are ethical in defense of labor conditions impact on the environment, the cetera that cannot be fit for all companies. there are a number of companies out in china that have facing a lot of criticism. some of that has to do with their energy use and interviews

that is not clean. there is a lot of criticism about working conditions and some of these places. so in general, i think we need to, to break this down 1st has to do with, is it ethical in the sense that it is environmentally friendly and the other is ethically, isn't harming anyone. in most cases we see that both the ethical side and, and the environmental side kind of go hand in hand and, and compared to, to the majority of natural to look at natural diamonds in mining their human conditions are by and large syntactic workers are unionized in the largest companies, all of the large companies are,

are public companies. so they're facing serious with me. if they do not meet standards, they are reporting on their own ethical and environmental impacts. and those are audited so, so. so in that regard, i wouldn't say vance lab grown diamonds are, by definition more ethical than, than natural. and the elegy, the industry claims that its objective is to democratize the diamond industries so that it is more affordable to all. but i doing that, isn't it inherently killing off the diamond industry and taking away the allure of what makes diamonds so valuable and coveted? so the issue of valley was an interesting one. so 1st of all, the issue of let's start with new market ties environments. democratizing guy is really started with the beers in the 940

a very accurately this that in the. ready post. ready war 2 era, we're looking primarily the united states and joined a boom and the growth in the middle class. and that's where that is wherever the slogan and marketing campaign really been. up until that point diamonds were really something that you saw primarily available to the very rich royalties to hollywood stars. but the average joe. ready didn't have an opportunity or the financial ability to buy them forever. was campaign that said look, let's make sure that everybody has an opportunity and a desire to buy a diamond. so there we go. what we're seeing is really that, that the market, the democratization of diamonds began 80 years ago. so

that's one another and. ready so there's issue of what is the value today? and there is a debate. so one of the tenants of a luxury item is that it's not available to everybody. and, and it is pricey. so it's the economic aspect of it makes it less available as well as them american quantity of the market. and in that regard, if, if we see diamonds being sold for $200.00, you know, everybody can afford them. it bright is wrong, munificent social, which and i think everybody should have access to something. they see that a is beautiful and be, makes in feel good. i think the biggest value of a diamond ring, for example, is how does it make you feel?

does it make you feel when your gifted good and, and that, that made somebody happy? if you're the person being gifted, does it remain a strong and positive memory? does it make you happy? the answers are yes. if you look at a diamond, you'd say, wow, i'm so happy i have it. if you have a great item and that makes it valuable. and at the end of the day, i think that's the most important thing. there's no doubt that the fact that i them will, will have a sort of a bifurcation diamonds in the back. in this, we will have diamonds that are high price and as such luxury items. and we expect to see that primarily happening with natural diamonds and other how we're going to have something that is mass produced easily accessible. the cost of manufacturing is and growing in will reduce over time,

making it more and more accessible. and as such i don't expect it to be. ready a luxury item as much as it will be a fashion item available to everybody. thank you so much, even go on by your insights. and when we come back, we'll discuss the real environmental casa jen. what is the price? countries are willing to pay to get a hold of question, don't go away for ah, look forward to talking to you all. that technology should work for people. robot must obey the orders given it human beings, except where such orders. a conflict with the 1st law show your identification. we should be very careful about on personal intelligence. and the point obviously is to place trust rather than fear a job with artificial intelligence. real summoning

with obama protect its own existence with the claims of the king of the belgians, leopold the 2nd to the congo were finally authorized by the leading european countries in 18. 85. in the very heart of the african continent. a state under the rule of the belgian monarch was declared since the beginning, the congo free state was total, may him for the local population and functioned as a universal concentration camp. the majority of the population,

including women and children, were forced to work on the rubber plantations. those who failed to fulfill their quota were beaten and mutilated. to keep the congolese people under control, the king set up the so called for spook leak, which were punitive detachments that cast terror on the captured country and its inhabitants. fearing that their subordinates would simply waste bullets hunting for wild animals, the officers demanded that the soldiers gave an answer for every bullet used. and as proof presented a chop hand of an african. it was not uncommon when trying to justify the use of the ammunition, the colonist amputated the hands of not only those who were dead well to love. those who were kept alive. the atrocious exploitation of the congo turned into a real genocide in only 20 years. the policy of the belgians led to the death of nearly 10000000 people alongside the holocaust. that genocide of the congo

population is considered to be one of the greenest pages in the history of mankind . blue, welcome back. it's not does diamonds that fascinate us. colored gemstones have had a resurgence of interest in recent years. for example, the duchess of cambridge is sapphire engagement rang megan marco's aqua marine ring . and princess eugene coral puffer, ayesha and moore. this has led the sector towards a double digit growth with record prices for emeralds and rubies that surpassed the price of diamonds on a per carrot basis. but all that growth comes with a price, which is unfortunately, the environment. towns in world, south africa, laggers fontaine were destroyed when the damn bill to hold back. the waste from mining crumbled, sending grace slush throughout the community. the waste from mining known as

tailings, isn't becoming a major problem, as poor committees are saddled with toxic waste. once all the gems are extracted, a similar dam collapsed and brazil years ago, killing more than 250 people. unfortunately, these minds are often in rural areas where operators lack the resources and expertise to manage tailing dams and often skim in order to save on operational costs for money also and laws, building tunnels and pits which opens room for soil erosion loose sediments will continue accumulating in the nearby bodies of waters and the land itself will become unfit for agricultural purposes, further promoting d 4 station. so now knowing the true costs of these gems, is it still worth it? let's bring in eating gall and diamond industry analyst at diamond research and data for more. so even people today are increasingly looking to precious metals and

colored gemstones as safe assets. what do you make of that? and how do these precious gems such as sapphires, rubies and emeralds compared to a diamond as an investment asset? so there's a, there's a big debate about diamonds are a. ready investment worth the item and, and here to, we're seeing that we're looking at a and not let me restate that. with diamonds were saying that not old diamonds are investments where the diamonds and there are some that are very much so. so diamonds that have the top top color, top clarity, perfect, polishing, and in sizes that are very rare. so 5 carrots and above. so the flow list,

what is called the triple excellent, 5 cara dime in his rear and the, and as they get bigger and remain those other characteristics, they become more and more, less available in the market. and as such, where we see that usually at times of crisis, their prices tend to rise. and, and looking about the time of crisis, we're talking 9 live in 2008, the coven, endemic, and those kind of times we see that usually many elements, many economic elements are declining. so the stock market price of gold sometimes usually goes up, but sometimes goes down real estate, which is an important investment, tends to prices real, estate tend to decline at those times when people usually do they tend to jewelry for a whole list of reasons. psychological, primarily, and,

and emotional. and what we see of those times is because there's a rise in demand and usually those sort of times it's difficult to mine, which was clearly the case doing over prices tend to rise. so as such, some diamonds are no doubt a hedge. so in that regard, they are a good investment for the long term, especially not just the damage scribe, but those with unique colors, unusual colors of pinks, red blues are, are in great demand and they're rarity, makes them especially expensive. and so for example, the are, the minute really of it shut down about 2 years ago was the main source of diamonds. without that mine, there's going to be a lot less being diamonds coming into the market. so their prices are appreciating

. that's the natural trend in terms of rubies and satisfies we're seeing those kind of trends with semi precious gems as well, although not the same extent. so there are some sapphires in emeralds and rubies that are appreciating and value. but this is primarily when they are attached to an interesting piece of jewelry. so nicholas is crowns earrings that have a story behind them. so providence does a lot to to increase their value over time. and those are interesting inventions. if we talk about investments in terms of, you know, if they go out to the store, my local specialty jewelry and i buy one carrot ring with, with a typical color clarity combination. their prices do increase over time,

but it's not a real investment opportunity. the whole retail model is based on the idea that i buy wholesale. i mark up the goods a little bit and then sell them very when you want to turn back to the store and say, look, you know, i buy this from you for so many dollars in the past 23510 years ago. and now i want to see the return on investment in our retailer won't buy it back at a retail price. so buy back in a hostile price because you know, that's the basis of the retail business holds only. so we feel so. so at times people can feel that they did not see the full appreciation, but mainly it has to do with the fact that they are within a model that does not encourage to create those kind of transactions. it seems like several, the top tier mines have already been depleted mines in me and more that contain the

infamous pigeon blood rubies or cashmere sapphires, or the gal condom minds for diamonds has been long depleted. so do you see other semi precious stones like opals or aqua marines joining the ranks of the traditional sapphire rubies and emeralds? will it's a tricky question. so let's start with with you know, what, what is available will be available. one of the answers to the kitchen. ready wholesale ability is technology, right, we used to be impossible to reach the past of a sudden becoming became available. when technology change, when exploration technologies improved when conditions of improved. look at a lot of the diamond minds around the world today they're under ground. and, you know, i've been to a diamond mine in the started as an open it, which is a typical my and it went more than 600 meters underground.

now, this is technology that didn't exist you know many years ago. and today, you know, your mining diamond at keno kilometer below sea level. so, so it's really a matter of technology. i had a conversation with the ceo of the beers was really clever. who said, look, we're already seeing changes in technology that will allow us to find diamonds of places that in the past we thought that they're not there or in the past we felt they are a possible resource. but just because of the costing complexity of mining it, these resources were never. busy developed and that were able to develop them and we'll see that the music was working on of us get there and, and be able to extract these gems economically. so this and this is true for

all gen, this is not true just for diamonds just with ruby, 2 for sapphires, emerald, et cetera. so that's the answer. the 1st part of the question, will we see other gems rise and become interesting in patients? but sylvia, it's a possibility, i think that there are a lot of beautiful minerals out there that are not being traded as is very expensive or valuable items and taste, change interest change. i wouldn't be surprised at all. you'll see that some of these items that are today viewed and sort of pedestrian become desirable of interest marketing will have had and that, you know, some interesting brand will come out with design or jewelry line that is based on

a certain item that will promote it. clearly, so there's definitely a possibility. so we know that the rarity of diamonds is somewhat manipulated by the beers who have monopolies. what about the color gems? markets are the color precious gen innately scares or are there other market forces at play? it's a common misconception that the beers is a monopoly, that is gaming prices. so look for the past, you know, back in the old days, you know, 304050 years ago, the beers had an 80 percent market share was a combination of our market share, bucking by the value of rough diamonds. this market was created not only by the fact that the bill was the largest diamond minor in the world who was also the largest marketer. in other words. ready would buy diamonds from other companies and

market it jointly and made a lot of sense for the exploration other exploration mining companies. we didn't have to deal with the marketing process. we'd have to clean the dime into the, sort of the diamonds in the have to maintain a large operation of understanding what's the price of certain stone that of, you know, 3 to 8000 different ways of, of breaking you can bring the diamonds up to you know that some taken down 530023000 categories and some breaking to a 1000. so there's a lot of a lot of issues involved in how do you price and market a dime. so it was easy to provide it to the viewers about 20 years ago, the company became very sensitive to the issue of its monopoly mystic position and made a couple of changes in the way that it works that changed it. so today the beers is

about my value 30 percent of the supply the market. there's another company rosa that up until about a year ago when they found distinction used in february 2022 because it's the russian company. so, but at that point it was the biggest supplier of diamonds by phone writing by value a little bit less. so not only that, the beards isn't the biggest kind of minor anymore, it's, it's, you know, some could argue that not all going to, pardon me, not only would you say that it could be argued that not only that the beers is not a majority provider, inclusive provided to the market that in fact, it's not even the biggest company in the market because there's another company that sells more. thank you so much, even go on for your time and insight. now in the debate between diamonds and

colored jan's is the consumers who will ultimately decide are these beautiful stones worth. the stress we put on the environment is the cost justified when the land are stripped and rivers polluted. ultimately, it is up to the consumer to decide if it is worth it to them, or if they're happy with a counterfeit. i would say, synthetic sense, counterfeit has the connotation of deceit, and people are not necessarily being deceived. but the beauty of purchasing a stone that has been growing for millions of years and then plucked out of the ground is so special. and no amount of technology could ever replace or even come close to the fascination of a natural stone. but at what cost to the admirer, i'm christie. i thanks for watching. and we'll see you right here next time on the cost of everything. ah

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. the joggers archipelago. homer, the jo, san diego garcia, the largest island in the archipelago is now the location of a very large u. s. military base. you get given met g r a u. s. government to make the military base and just deported all of the juggle send people from their country. so they call it returned back on the island. no, but we are fighting. that's why i'm real fighting for the right. so i, we do not consider that the right to self determination actually applies to the trickle. since and on the question of self determination, the legal advice we've received is actually the trickle. since we're not and are not a people for me,

it's time to move on and see what we can do for the jungle. said community to return back home, knowledge support from the united nation. i commission african united nish. i don't care about chug restaurant people with didn't you? weapons now you can be 100 percent. sure. we will destroy the slippers. the cmc wagner chief shares has insight on the conflict in ukraine with our correspondent, the same the key city of audio most with fade. one of the top carriers in the ukranian brain deal has been delivering, we'd not to africans pay the need, but to its own lives. as disgusting, you know, thought for human beings to be starving. and for the, for the president. although the priority to be fixed, it's almost like.