Are Diamonds a Renewable Resource?

Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

• A renewable resource is a natural resource replenished in a relatively short period of time such as plants, animals, water and solar energy. A non-renewable resource either takes a very long time to replenish or can't be replenished at all. Non-renewable resources include fossil fuels, minerals, precious metals and diamonds.

Formation

• Diamonds form at extremely high pressures and temperatures deep in the Earth's mantle, in space and at the impact sites of meteorites and asteroids. Diamonds formed in the mantle are brought to the surface by volcanic activity.

Considerations

• Most diamonds are billions of years old. Once they have all been mined, it will take hundreds of millions of years for new diamonds to form. Some sources are already depleted. For example, the Indian diamond industry which once produced 12 million carats annually was down to 100 carats a year by the mid-20th Century.