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by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score on Friday was a so-so 92-95-123 although the TSX Venture Exchange fell fractionally to 569. Weary diamond investors are still waiting for the turnaround in rough diamond prices promised by analysts and prayed for by miners and explorers. Alas, as summer begins there is nary a sign that dwindling supply amid sanctions against Russian gems is having any impact on reversing a slide in prices now well into its third year.

And so, Paul Zimnisky has logged another drop on his global rough diamond price index, adding to a new slide that began in mid-March, following a two-month plateau. The index now sits at 142.2 points, a 1.1-point decline over a week ago. Once again, if there was any late-to-arrive data, they had no impact on last week's fix at 143.3 points, so rough prices dropped 0.8 per cent this week and have fallen nearly 5 per cent over the past three months.

Rough diamond prices hit an all-time high in mid-February of 2022, when Mr. Zimnisky pegged his index at 207.3 points, but the subsequent decline has been relentless, peeling away 65.1 points from the index, a drop of 31.4 per cent over the past 28 months. All of Mr. Zimnisky's time comparisons are glowering in red, with the most damning of all being the 10-year comparison: In late June of 2014, the index sat at 172.6 points, so prices have dropped 17.6 per cent over the past decade, while inflation has added about 30 per cent to costs of production.

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