For more than a century, Antwerp has been a crucial hub for a $100 billion global industry—one that virtually defines love and commitment, and one that has fueled vicious wars and terrible exploitation. The Belgian city is the world’s biggest trading post for rough diamonds: About 40% of the world’s annual supply of the gems pass through Antwerp’s Diamantkwartier on their circuitous journey from mine to jewelry store.
The diamond district, three narrow streets near the train station, doesn’t exactly reflect the glamour and glitter of the finished product. But the quarter’s modest buildings bely a high-flying business inside. Upstairs in one diamond-trading building on a recent September afternoon, an engineer sat gazing at a golf-ball-size rock on his desk.
“This is the first time I have seen a diamond this big, and I have worked 17 years in the industry,” said the engineer, Narshi Kalsariya, studying a 3D image of its intricate facets on his monitor. Dug out of the ground more than 7,000 miles away, in the southern African country of Botswana, the rock weighs more than 1,000 carats, or about seven ounces.
