Everyone seems to want to get their hands on a diamond but it’s not always easy to do so. While many industries have simplified their production process to bring cost and accessibility closer to the needs of the consumer, the diamond industry is no different. The industry has been evoloving novel ways to deliver diamonds to the market.
Traditionally, diamonds have been a coveted and complicated resource to obtain because they are the result of a natural geological process that takes billions of years to form. Diamonds are formed deep within the Earth, roughly 100 miles below the surface. The pressure, weight and temperature under the earth create the perfect conditions necessary for diamond crystals to begin to form.
If that wasn’t complicated enough, to extract diamonds requires drilling machinery, immense human labour and resources- it is an expensive, complicated and sometimes dangerous task. Because of this complexity, by 1879 experimentation with synthetic diamonds were already in the works but nothing was confirmed. Yet, in the 1940s, systematic research began in the United States, Sweden and the Soviet Union to grow diamonds using CVD and HPHT processes and the first reproducible synthesis was reported around 1955.
There are several ways to create a synthetic diamond; High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) The process involves large presses that can weigh hundreds of tons to produce a pressure of 5 GPa at 1500 °C and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition). For high quality, wearable gems, CVD is the preferred process. It creates a carbon plasma over a substrate onto which the carbon atoms deposit to form a diamond.
By their composition, synthetic diamonds are identical in structure to the naturally formed stones that are extracted from the earth. After all, the synthetic process exactly replicates the carbon reaction that triggers the growth of diamond molecules.
Although it’s difficult to imagine that earth mined diamonds could have such serious competition, today’s synthetic diamond industry is projected to be worth $15 billion by 2035. It looks like consumers are open and interested in the idea of a synthetic diamond due to the lower cost (synthetic diamonds are one-tenth the price of a natural diamond) and the ethical element, as there is no concern about low wage workers or children working the mines in developing countries, or “Blood Diamonds”. Synthetic diamonds are simply formulated in the lab.
In fact, synthetic diamonds are making such a strong presence in the marketplace that De Beers, the world’d largest diamond distributor, is piloting a new sales partnership for Lightbox (its lab-grown diamond brand, introduced in 2018) and will further expand its diamond collection with two additional department store collaborations: select Bloomingdale’s and Reed’s department stores will carry the De Beers Lightbox line in their stores and through their websites.
It seems that the natural diamond industry is experiencing some big shifts. Despite an $85 billion market value of their own, mined gems sales are under pressure due to a global oversupply. It looks like synthetic diamonds have come a long way from the early trials of the 1800’s and will be making a lasting stay in the marketplace for years to come, meeting the needs of consumers who are looking for affordable alternatives; and synthetic diamonds are hitting the mark.
