Diamonds have been known as one of the hardest substances known to man. Diamonds are considered as a woman's best friend, as so the saying goes. But there are certain facts that many people still don't know about this valuable substance.

The term itself means "indestructible".

Diamond is known as the hardest natural substance on earth. Even this was known since ancient times as attributed to how its name was derived. The word "diamond" comes from the Greek word "adamas", which means "unbreakable" or "indestructible".

Carats initially refers to the equivalent weight of the diamond in carob seeds.

Carat was first used to refer to an equivalent weight associated with the carob seed. It was used by the Arabs and the term was derived from the Arabic word "qirat".

Pink diamonds come from Down Under.

It might be due to some environmental factors and others, but pink diamonds today are almost all sourced out from Australia's Argyle Mine. The mine produces 90 percent of the world's pink diamond supply.

De Beers held 90 percent of the diamond market up until the 1990's.

De Beers once hold an almost total monopoly of the diamond market in the world. Before the 1990's. Almost every diamond in the market was first channeled through the diamond trading giant. It once held the power of controlling the market prices for diamonds. But since then, the monopoly has been broken when some diamond producing countries looked for other channels to market their diamonds other than the one that De Beers offered. But De Beers currently is still considered as the largest company in the world that deals with diamonds.

80 percent of diamonds being mined end up as diamond powder for industrial use.

Much of the value of diamonds stem from the fact that only 20 percent of them end up as gemstones and find their way into jewelry stores. Much of the diamonds being mined are used for various industries as diamond dust. It is melted into metals that are made into drills, knives and saws.