It is the latest sign of a rebound in an industry which was in the doldrums until recently. The biggest miners had been sitting on billions of dollars of surplus stock. Jewellery has been a luxury winner of the pandemic, with wealthy, stuck-at-home shoppers who had little else to spend their money on splashing out on bling.
You can add another item to the list of assets with surging prices: diamonds.
Prices for rough-cut gems — the kind of stones used to make an average engagement ring — were up 10% this week at the latest De Beers sale compared with the previous auction. Within hours, some of the stones were changing hands in the secondary market with an additional 10% mark-up.
