America is the #1 consumer of diamonds world wide. We consume over 50% of the diamond jewelry with China in second place at only 12%. How can we have a commercially viable diamond mine right here in the United States but still choose to buy our diamonds from countries and processes that are riddled with conflict? Arkansas diamonds sell for, on average, 10x more than similar diamonds, mostly due to their American provenance. It stands to reason that someone would be interested in developing the American diamond market but despite efforts from domestic and International mining companies, it has never been done.
The first Arkansas diamonds were found in 1906. They were sent to Tiffany & Co. in New York to verify their authenticity. Tiffany confirmed that the stones were diamonds and sent their head gemologist, Fred Kunz, and geologist Dr. Henry Washington to Arkansas to investigate. In their report for the New York Academy of Science, Kunz and Dr. Washington concluded that there was, in fact, evidence that the diamond deposit in Arkansas would rival the top producing mines in South Africa. At this time, the US Justice Dept. reported over 100,000 diamonds discovered in the top 50 feet of the diamond field. Half of these diamonds were sold to a Fifth Ave. firm and many were cut into expensive gems. In comparison, South African mines averaged only a quarter carat of diamonds for every tonne of rock removed. This caught the attention of Ernest Oppenheimer and DeBeers who tried to buy the Arkansas mine. To their disappointment, The Sherman Anti-Trust act prohibited monopolies, like DeBeers, to operate in the United States and the deal was crushed. DeBeers felt, in classic monopoly style, if they couldn't have the mine, no one could have it so they set up to sabotage any deals that came afterwards.
In 1920, Henry Ford wanted to buy the mine to use the industrial quality diamonds in his tool assembly lines. Ford was already buying diamonds from DeBeers for this purpose and the diamond cartel wasn't about to let their customer supply his own diamonds. DeBeers successfully bribed the mine owners to stop production, and when the production numbers came in, Ford wasn't able to get the support he needed to close the deal.
In 1940, US diplomats were protesting in London because DeBeers was not supplying diamonds designated for National defense. The case was made to congress to mine Arkansas diamonds but again DeBeers was able to stop the conversation with political bribes.
Over the decades, the general excuse for not mining Arkansas diamonds has been that some geologists concluded there wouldn't be enough yield to justify a mining operation despite finding an unprecedented number of gem quality diamonds just on the surface. Most diamonds are concentrated a mile or more beneath the surface of the earth.
Just three days ago, a man found a 7.46 carat diamond at the park. Hillary Clinton wore a 4.25 carat flawless fancy vivid yellow diamond that was set into a ring for Bill Clinton's 1993 Inauguration. The Uncle Sam diamond is a monster weighing in at 40 carats and all of these plus hundreds of thousands more were discovered just on the surface of the earth because there's never been any efforts to explore deeper. No one knows how many diamonds lay beneath. In comparison to what we know about the South African mines, it's could be extraordinary.
The questions remain. Who's benefitting from keeping possibly the most significant diamond supply in recent history out of the jewelry of the American people? Why risk trading diamonds that could have ties to terrorist organizations or sanctioned governments when we could ethically and sustainably mine our own? If you had the option, would you choose an American mined diamond rather than one with an unknown origin history?
(Photo credit: GIA)