Diamonds are famous worldwide for their beauty and prestige, but not many people are aware that diamonds have other virtues as well. Since diamonds are the strongest and hardest natural material known to man, they are often used for industrial purposes. Industrial diamonds are valued for their hardness and heat conductivity, while disregarding the four C's that the gemstone industry is based on.

Industrial diamonds are usually inferior to gemstones in clarity, color etc. Contrary to popular belief, diamonds as a whole are not all that rare. Only some 20% of all diamonds mined around the world are used as gemstones, while the rest are used in industry. The line between gem-quality diamonds and industrial diamonds is not absolutely defined: when demand for polished diamonds is high, low-quality diamonds are polished into low-quality or small gemstones instead of being used in the industry.

Diamonds are the perfect material for cutting and grinding tools. Diamond based tools can polish, cut and wear away any kind of material, including other diamonds. Diamonds are used in the industry in drill bits and saws, while diamond powder is used as an abrasive.

In addition to natural diamonds that are deemed unfitting to commercial use, synthetic diamonds also serve as industrial diamonds. A total of 570 million carats of synthetic diamonds are produced annually for industrial use, and 90% of diamond grinding grit are made of synthetic diamonds.

Many Israeli companies, such as Strauss & Co., Ben Gad Yosef and Toolgal provide industrial diamonds and develop diamond cutting tools for turning, boring and burnishing different types of materials.

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When was the last time you watched a movie about a $120 Million diamond heist? Thirty years ago diamond robbers were bad guys who would eventually get arrested, diamonds in hand. Today perhaps we're a little bit more honest, or maybe just more experienced due to global media, so sometimes our diamond robbers are cast by beloved celebrities and sometimes they're not really caught, although the dubious nature of crime remains.

But one way or another - the sophistication, shrewdness and resourcefulness of the robbers is a mere teaser to the scene where hundreds of mind-blowing, sparkling, coveted diamonds are poured into bags. More diamonds than we can ever imagine laying our hands on… Well, one Italian dude went for the diamond dream. He had been practicing robbery since he was 6 years old, honing his robbery skills through the years, attaining mastery.

Last week police caught Leonardo Notabartolo, the mastermind of the world largest diamond bank robbery performed six years ago. He was caught with some of the diamonds he had gotten away with. Notabartolo was able to cut through ten different layers of bank security systems, one by one. He was then able to open the vaults and collect $120 Million worth of Diamonds. Why was a mastermind robber such as Notabartolo caught? That is another movie-perfect question. Apparently one of Notabartolo's four team members for the heist was a man who began experiencing anxiety attacks. Other team members thought he should not be counted on anymore. However, Notabartolo called the shots and he said "the dude goes".

Driving away from the scene of the crime that one anxiety-ridden team member hysterically threw a bag of trash, so carefully collected fingerprints and all, out of the car. Notabartolo, expectedly, had a plan to drive the trash to France and burn it there. This could have been the perfect, unsolved crime. But so it was that a forester detected a bag of unusual trash the next day and summoned the police.

So is this the end of our diamond-perfect movie? No, wait – there is another one coming! Notabartolo hired a lawyer called Basilio Foti and was actually able to walk out of incarceration with diamonds in hand. Basilio Foti's defense rested on the fact that unlike polished, cut diamonds, rough diamonds are hard to trace as they have no special marks on them.

The Italian legal system was unable to incarcerate the shrewd diamond robber, who claimed he had bought the diamonds fair and square. So how about weaving diamond dreams? I think, for me, I'd rather buy me one good carat sized diamond, maybe have a few other gemstones around it, and then go materialize some more positive dreams.

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Diamonds used to have a daddy. The daddy was De Beers - a South Africa based mining company who held as much as 80 percent of the diamond market share back in the 1980s. This provided quite an incentive for De Beers to promote diamond consumption, regardless of the particular dealers and jewelry designers who sold them. And although it took a considerable budget, I'm pretty sure marketing diamonds is easy enough.

I mean, diamonds almost sell themselves. The images of these clear, beautifully cut stones make it impossible not to think "I've got to get me one too." So all De Beers had to do was display pictures of sparkling diamonds on big billboards. At least as far as I'm concerned. 

However, by the year 2000 De Beers's market share was reduced to 65 percent, and in 2005 it was further reduced to 43 percent. Today De Beers only holds 40 percent of the diamond market, a mere half of its market share almost thirty years ago, partly because of the sale of the Williamson mine, which is now producing profusely for its new owner, Petra Diamonds.

All things considered, the intelligent people at De Beers are no longer interested in being generic diamonds' big daddy. Their new campaign now promotes a special miniature inscription on the diamond itself assuring clients of its origins. With revelations of fake diamond certificates the investment in diamond inscription is likely to pay off. The Board of Diamond Dealers has recently issued a warning regarding fake diamond certificates that masque treated diamonds as natural ones, thereby falsely increasing their supposed value. This can definitely put off diamond consumers and dealers.

This left a gap – now, who's gonna spend out on big billboards displaying those irresistible, radiant diamonds, making sure we all continue to consume them?

Well, some of the major diamond mining companies wisely got together and created a board dedicated exactly to that – making sure we keep hankering for that fabulous sparkle embedded in our jewelry. They intend to become diamonds' new big daddy, maintaining consumer confidence by providing customer service, guiding and answering quarries. 

These "new guys on the block" are still in the initial stages of organization. They're still looking for that bright Chief Executive Officer to lead the project.  (Interested?) They'll spend the next twelve months organizing themselves as well as building up consumer confidence. 

With Zimbabwe seemingly phasing out of decent diamond trade after disregarding Kimberly Process Team recommendations, these services by the board have gained added importance. We all want to know that our latest purchase of "a girl's best friend" is genuine, and we don't want any children losing limbs over that lovely sparkling diamond of ours, when following the Kimberly Process guidelines doesn't take more than simple decency. 

Kimberly Process Teams go and investigate cases of blood diamond abuses and help us purchase diamonds that do not involve enslavement or cruelty. So I'm excited about generic diamonds' big new daddy and wish them the best. Hope to see them around.

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