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South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

wsj.com

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Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#131

Post by pixelpoet »

mulderc wrote: post #124
thephyber wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost like he's undermining the one single thing the diamond sales industry had used to thrive for nearly a century before him.

Since the company itself didn’t mine diamonds and basically just took the market rate, his estimate was that they could achieve even better profit margins with lab-grown diamonds and would be positioned well even with eventual market competition. Given some other stories he had about the company, it sounds like they were more interested in not rocking the boat than long-term profits.

You definitely don't want to rock the boat and undermine the diamond industry, that much is crystal clear.

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#132

Post by mcv »

TomJansen wrote: post #15
SoftTalker wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we can replace the taste, appearance, and texture of a medium-rare rib eye with lab grown meat at a substantially cheaper price, we will.

>substantially cheaper price why substantially cheaper? Break-even would be fine too, no? And as a plus, lab-grown meat is much more ethical. I also think that replacing 'cheap' meat like ground beef would already be sufficient and would make a huge impact, there is really no need make it difficult for ourselves and try to replace rib-eye.

Expect the meat industry to lobby against being allowed to call it meat, if it didn't involve real living animals.

In Europe they managed to get words like burger, nugget and sausage to only be legally applicable to meat. They'll definitely do the same for words for actual meat.

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#133

Post by kstrauser »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #111
dyauspitr wrote: post #88

Literally everyone I know is enlightened about this but still spent $5k on a natural diamond ring myself included. There something about it (probably just the high cost) that makes the ladies very happy even though they are “enlightened”/rational as well.

The same reason they buy LV, Gucci, Chanel, Hermes. It’s the same reason men buy Rolexes. Also don’t even question it since economic inequality going up means most of the good high end bags or watches out pace inflation!!!

That's true, but hear me out. I wear reasonably priced, "nice" watch — a Seiko 5 GMT. Quartz watches tell time better. I wear this one because I think it's a good looking watch and like the way it looks and feels on me. Although quite practical as far as such things go, it's definitely in the "jewelry" category. I paid more than a well-working quartz digital costs purely because I found it attractive, not because it's an objectively amazing watch. I get the appeal of jewely.

So... instead of spending $5k on that blood diamond, spend that much on a larger, prettier, flashier, objectively better lab diamond. Now you or your lady friend can enjoy a bigger, nicer, even more luxurious diamond for the same price. You can still spend $5k if you wish, but end up with something more mind-blowing.

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#135

Post by mcv »

bookofjoe wrote: post #41
jonstewart wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully most people here getting ribeyes aren’t getting them from the same factory farms that supply McDonald’s and sell other cheap kinds of beef. A ribeye is an occasional luxury and best bought from the farmer.

>... best bought from the farmer. Perhaps you're anticipating this: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/4/trump-allows...

Is that an executive order overriding a law? Is that possible? I thought executive orders only affected the federal government.

I'm all for breaking the stranglehold of those big 4 meatpacking companies, but make it an actual law, not something that won't hold up in court.

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#136

Post by Fwirt »

hn_submit wrote: post #48

The market for natural diamonds will cease to exist when you can buy lab-grown versions for a couple bucks. They wanted to differentiate between natural and lab-grown versions with the former being much more expensive. But that train has left the station since there's little to no difference in quality between the two. In fact, I once predicted there'd be huge scams where lab-grown ones would be repackaged and sold a…

Not only that, but why buy diamonds when Moissanite exists? Not as hard as diamond (by a tiny amount) but much less brittle and much more sparkle. Also even more “rare” than diamond since the only natural occurring ones are microscopic. Plus they come in colors! It took a while to talk my wife down off of the diamond industry’s hype, but she loves lab grown stones now.

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#137

Post by watwut »

mcv wrote: post #132
TomJansen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>substantially cheaper price why substantially cheaper? Break-even would be fine too, no? And as a plus, lab-grown meat is much more ethical. I also think that replacing 'cheap' meat like ground beef would already be sufficient and would make a huge impact, there is really no need make it difficult for ourselves and try to replace rib-eye.

Expect the meat industry to lobby against being allowed to call it meat, if it didn't involve real living animals. In Europe they managed to get words like burger, nugget and sausage to only be legally applicable to meat. They'll definitely do the same for words for actual meat.

Which is ok and entirely valid regulation. It is ok to not want the industries to rewrite meanings of words.

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#138

Post by watwut »

dyauspitr wrote: post #88

Literally everyone I know is enlightened about this but still spent $5k on a natural diamond ring myself included. There something about it (probably just the high cost) that makes the ladies very happy even though they are “enlightened”/rational as well.

You move in unusual circles. That is pretty expensive ring for "everyone" to have.

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#139

Post by lovich »

recursivecaveat wrote: post #130
lovich wrote: post #65

Its not gonna be just diamonds, pretty much every gemstone is subject to the lab grown stuff. Im into gem cutting as a hobby so its been great for me to find stuff like these cheap ruby roughs[1] but yea, its gonna fuck up anyone selling the natural stuff. [1] https://www.etsy.com/listing/4443524661/lab-grown-red-ruby-s...

That's actually super cool. I wouldn't have even considered that you could buy a fist sized block of ruby for $40. Sounds like a fun hobby.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/318411094465

Not ridiculously cheap, but probably within the realm of most people on this forums budget if they want to get into it.

Another plus side of the lab grown gems is that they are usually uniform in quality. Natural stones can have a lot of variance in hardness and cracks that make them need a more nuanced hand on.

If anyone running across this comment thread gets interested, the material you are looking for is "lab grown ${gemstone you care about} rough"

Re: South African diamond mines are closing due to weak sales and lab-grown stones

#140

Post by ozyschmozy »

fooker wrote: post #128
ozyschmozy wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that have to do with the price? If it's mass produced, widely available, thoroughly tested, and the same price as regular meat, why wouldn't you prefer it?

Everything in history that was mass produced was priced more than an order of magnitude lower than the 'original'. I don't see artificial meat being the first exception to this. I'd see 'same price as meat' being an indication of something going wrong here.

Are you implying that the meat industry as it is currently, producing nearly 400 million tonnes of meat annually, isn't mass production? Why would we assume that lab grown meat, even if it's mass produced, would be much cheaper than that well oiled machine?
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