It was a technically impressive performance. A nuclear-powered ice-breaker spearheaded a Russian fleet that crashed its way through the pack ice to the North Pole. Then, deep-diving mini submarines arrowed down to the seabed to collect rock samples and plant a titanium Russian flag exactly at the North Pole under 4,200 metres (13,860 feet) of water. Russia then claimed a 460,000 square mile swathe of Arctic seabed as its sovereign territory on the argument that the undersea Lomonosov ridge is actually a continuation of the Russian land mass.

Everybody has derided and dismissed the Russian claim. But based on current international law, if the rock samples brought back by the mini-subs prove that the Lomonosov ridge is indeed a continuation of the Russian land mass, Moscow has a very strong argument in support of its claim.

No prizes for guessing that this is all about resources. The Arctic seabed is said to hold 10 billion tonnes of oil and gas deposits, tin, manganese, gold, nickel, lead, platinum – and diamonds. No one’s really quantified the diamonds, but according to scientists, there are potentially huge deposits in the Arctic. Don’t forget, the Russians were the first to mine diamonds in the Arctic regions with the opening of the Mir mine. All of the world’s recent major diamond discoveries have also been in the Canadian Arctic.

Russia is today the world leader in Arctic icebreaking and navigation technology. Global warming is also making it easier to penetrate the pack ice on the frozen top of the world. And while the technical challenges to mining and resource extraction are still huge enough to ensure that commercial exploitation of the regions resources is still a decade or two away, Russia is off to a flying start.

The Canadians are now rushing to catch up, while the United States, having thus far refused to sign an international agreement on seabed resource exploitation, is now reportedly having second thoughts.

Given that Russia has rejected the idea of beneficiation and opted to simply sell to the highest bidder for its current rough diamond output, the global diamond industry’s raw material crunch could become a problem of plenty in the future if the Arctic seabed is as rich in diamonds as it is thought to be.