According to this report on Bloomberg.com, Gemesis is planning on selling 1 million carats worth of man-made diamonds next year.
The major Diamond mining companies like De Beers, Anglo American and Rio are getting a little nervous. They undoubtedly come out with a marketing campaign to squeech sales of "fake" diamonds. Here's what John Teeling, founder and chairman of African Diamonds Plc. (a Dublin-based mining company in which De Beers has a stake) says.
If you meet a woman that you are going to spend the rest of your life with and have babies with, are you going to give her a diamond made in a lab in Pittsburgh or are you going to give her the real thing?Teeling doesn't seem to be worried about it. But I own shares in Anglo American (AAUK) which owns 45% of De Beers so I am!
Synthetic diamonds cost about 70% less than real ones and you need a machine (which was developed by De Beers at a cost of $17 million) to differentiate between the two.
If your fiance or wife couldn't tell the difference would you sneak in a synthetic? Maybe justify it by paying the same price but getting a rock the size of your big toe?
6 comments:
I wouldn't have a problem spending less for a synthetic diamond, and I don't think most people would. There might be a slight stigma surrounding them at first, but I think it will eventually pass.
I personally am not big on jewelry, so spending several thousand dollars on a stone isn't my idea of a good investment. That said I did buy my wife a very nice wedding ring. :)
WIRED Magazine did an article on synthetic diamond manufacture a few years ago and it's very similar to making semiconductors.
So what I'd like to know is this: Is the mining of diamonds out of the ground environmentally a lot worse than all the effluent produced by making them in a lab? I am not sure of this and that's the one aspect of diamonds that is not discussed by anyone.
Personally, I'm down with lab diamonds, but probably wouldn't wear one since I am likely to damage the ring. It would live in a box anyway so that gets my future husband off the hook on the ethical dilemma.
I would wear a synthetic diamond, sure--especially if we could get a nicer or *ahem* larger diamond for the same money!
By the way, don't know if you're aware, but you and I were both given big props over on www.getrichslick.com ! Check it out!
Fake diamonds are low rent.
I showed the article to my wife of 38 years and she said she had no problems with the synthetic. (She and both are on the frugal side.) Besides, it's what the diamond signifies that counts, not the cost of the diamond.
I have no problem with synthetic diamonds, though I would hope that my partner wouldn't try to hide it from me.
Personally I'm not a huge diamond person. I'd rather have a ruby or emerald.
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