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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:04PM
There's a local college radio station that runs a public service announcement trying to get people to think about the longevity[1] of plastic in the ecosysytem.
In the PSA, the guy presents his gal with a ring where the "stone" is plastic.
His spiel is that the plastic will last forever, "just like our love".
[1] Think about the 5 huge ocean gyres e.g. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
From the GGP's root comment:
Diamonds aren't that rare
There's a fun heist movie based on how the cartel simply hoards huge amounts of the stuff in order to keep the prices high.
"11 Harrowhouse" Plot [wikipedia.org]
95 minute stream [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]