Rough Diam Prices (Fri, 28 Jan) - Mentioned by Will Purcell Once again, the threat of a halt in rising rough diamond prices has proven to be a false alarm. Rough prices rose 0.4 per cent this week, according to Paul Zimnisky's global rough diamond price index. Further, Mr. Zimnisky's tweaks to the recent data, as information tickled in late, turned the peak at the start of the year into a precarious plateau from which prices have resumed their climb -- repeating a trend that first appeared -- then disappeared -- last summer.
Prices are now up 26 per cent over the past five years, but all that gain came over the past year. Indeed, rough prices were last at this level in early 2011, after the giddy 18 months that followed the end of the Great Recession. Since then, prices drifted sideways at best since the 2011 bubble burst, leaving diamond miners and explorers showered in the potsherds of promotional enthusiasm.