Everybody is looking for diamonds in Canada—DeBeers, Tiffany's, the Russians, the Chinese, the Israelis, and a flock of mighty mineral exploration companies.
And no wonder. In 2003, after only 5 years of year-round diamond mining, Canadian diamond production reached an astonishing 11.2 million carats worth $1.3 billion.
Those figures were enough to make Canada the world's third largest diamond producer - by value - after Botswana and Russia. In addition, the country produced 15% of the world's diamonds by volume.
One reason that Canadian diamonds are so valuable is that a significant percentage of them are very high-quality. Indeed, a U.S. company that regularly buys diamond rough from Canada told Whiteflash it can't get enough medium-color and clarity goods. "Far too much of the material is G-color and VS1-clarity or better," the buyer complained. "In tough times, people want H to J and VS2 to SI2 goods."
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