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posted by martyb on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-you-can't-beat-'em... dept.

De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds

The world's largest diamond miner is doing the unthinkable: Selling stones produced in a laboratory. De Beers launched a new jewelry brand on Tuesday that features synthetic diamonds, a major reversal for a company that had implored consumers to stick with "real" stones.

The brand, called Lightbox, will offer synthetic diamonds at a fraction of the price it charges for stones pulled out of the earth. De Beers framed the move as a response to consumer demands. "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," said De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver.

[...] De Beers had been an outspoken critic of synthetic diamonds. Company executives vowed never to sell artificial stones, and it participated in the diamond industry's "real is rare" campaign. It even developed a machine that spots lab-grown stones.

Also at Bloomberg and TechCrunch.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @05:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @05:56PM (#686851)

    Agree completely. My partner and I have taken things one step further - we've not even gone to city hall to get a piece of paper that contractually binds us. That's worked for nearly 20 years, no need to change that now. (Unless Brexit means that we need to do some hoop jumping just to keep life easier for both of us - which it might - fuck Brexit!). We're both 50% owners of our company and our flats, so we've got enough paperwork to make splitting up a terrible prospect already!

      You might want to look into the legal side of things you don't have covered there, things such as hospital visitation and decision making, inheritance (those 50% of your company and flats for example), offspring and maybe even taxation.

      The "marriage certificate" governments offer are really about the civil union (the legal bits) part of the equation, not marriage (a religious concept). The marriage part is skippable if you aren't of a religious bent, but the civil union part protects the surviving partner's interests should disaster strike.

    Starting Score:    0  points
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