De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
money.cnn.com
De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
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Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#2This is great news for scientific research- diamonds for experimental purposes are a huge market that's impeded by their artificially high cost. From a material standpoint there's a multitude of uses for them- ranging from use in CERN's particle detectors for their high optical clarity, to creating nanodiamond transport mechanisms for drugs because of their resilience to microcellular activity.
By creating a mass market and demand for these artifically produced diamonds, the cost of production will significantly drop where it could be more affordable for researchers and companies to invest their time and ideas into.
Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#3Are there any perceptible differences between these and 'natural' diamonds?
Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#4It seems De Beers strategy is to clearly differentiate a man made stone vs a natural stone.
This way a man made stone can't easily cannibalize the value of a natural stone's market price premium.
The goal it seems is in-fact to maintain a premium with natural stones which is De Beers speciality. If they can't have all the revenues, De Beers want all the profits of the industry.
Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#5Are there any perceptible differences between these and 'natural' diamonds?
they are perfect, without inclusions, bubbles etc. really the only way to differentiate them. ironically.
Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#6Are there any perceptible differences between these and 'natural' diamonds?
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Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#7Are there any perceptible differences between these and 'natural' diamonds?
they are perfect, without inclusions, bubbles etc. really the only way to differentiate them. ironically.
You can introduce artificial defects during the manufacturing process to subvert detection of authenticity.
Source: After reading this Wired article [1] ~15 years ago, myself and two friends tried to (unsuccessfully) put VC money together to commit to large amounts of manufactured diamonds for the consumer industry.
Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#8Are there any perceptible differences between these and 'natural' diamonds?
Well it says in the article that De Beers developed a machine to spot synthetic diamonds, so I presume so.
Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#9tldr: De Beers is going to sell synthetic diamonds, after having vowed they wouldn't. (The already did but limited the synthetic ones to industrial applications.) Price will be ~1/10th that of naturals.
My reaction: "Oh, come on, this is the most insidious monopolist on the planet. What's the catch?"
I think this is it:
>The new synthetic diamonds will come in pink, blue and white, and the stones will contain a tiny Lightbox logo. De Beers said the logo won't be visible to the naked eye, but it will make the stones easily identifiable as lab-grown.
Sounds like a plan to ensure that synthetic diamonds are quickly distinguishable from natural ones and the latter still command a premium. (They had long been seeking a way to ensure distinguishability after lab-growers kept frustrating such efforts.)
Re: De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
#10"Lightbox will transform the lab-grown diamond sector by offering consumers a lab-grown product they have told us they want but aren't getting: affordable fashion jewelry that may not be forever, but is perfect for right now"
This is clearly a play to devalue the image of man made diamonds. "May not be forever" my ass, it's the exact same thing. Their goal is probably to try to quickly drive the price of man made diamonds down to the price of Moissanite, and create a artificial distinction between natural and man made dimaonds. All of this so the price of man made diamonds doesn't bring down the price of the natural stones with it.