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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a glowing 121-57-132 as the TSX Venture Exchange rose nine points to 546. Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index reverted to its usual pattern of late, logging a decline that ended five consecutive weeks of modest gains. The index now stands at 152.9 points, 0.6 per cent lower than the 153.7 points at which it sat a week ago and the 153.8 points to where Mr. Zimnisky had subsequently nudged it, based on late-to-arrive data.

And so, Mr. Zimnisky now has rough diamond prices back in the red over the past month, although his index is still 0.4 per cent higher than the 152.3 points at which it stood in mid-October when a two-month-long voluntary moratorium on Indian rough diamond purchases kicked in. Essentially, so long as many buyers choose not to buy, and many miners are willing to stockpile their production -- diamond prices will remain flattish.

The numbers alone telegraph an economic problem. Mr. Zimnisky says that while prices are nearly 4 per cent higher than late in 2018, they are over 2 per cent below where they were in the fall of 2013. Indeed, the current index, flattened in the low 150s, is essentially where it tracked through most of the 2010s. Then, while diamond promoters bemoaned the low prices, they assured investors that big gains were just around the corner. Not only did those gains not occur, miners and explorers are now having to deal with costs that are running a solid 30 per cent higher than a decade or so ago.

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