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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a positive 87-70-153 although the TSX Venture Exchange rose one point to 597. The rough diamond market was stable this week, according to Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index. For the second week running, there was no late-to-arrive data to spoil his recent charting. Prices did edge upward by an almost imperceptible amount, as Mr. Zimnisky added 0.1 point to last week's fix, putting the index at 147.5 points, an increase of less than 0.1 per cent.

Of course, the current fix is far below the all-time high of 207.3 points, set in mid-February of 2022, with Mr. Zimnisky now estimating prices are 28.9 per cent below that peak. Worse, prices are currently lower now than at most points during the past 10 years. (Ten years ago, Mr. Zimnisky put his index at 172.5 points, leaving current prices 14.5 per cent lower than then.)

And what of retail prices, you ask. Well, IDEX Research has a long-running index of retail diamond prices, and it shows they hit a record high in early March of 2022, with the index pegged at 158.3 points. By early May of 2024, IDEX had put the index at 106.6 points, a 33.7-per-cent drop. Remember that diamonds are not gold or copper, with a fixed price -- diamonds vary with both quality and size, with size being a powerful influence.

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