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posted by
martyb
on Monday November 19 2018, @12:57PM
from the all-that-glitters-is-not-natural-diamond dept.
from the all-that-glitters-is-not-natural-diamond dept.
The South China Morning Post writes that the dominant diamond player De Beers is reacting badly to the arrival of large numbers of good, tiny, lab-grown diamonds. The synthetics challenge the widely-promoted assertion that diamond prices only go up. However, labs are now able to produce chemically identical gem-quality stones, indistinguishable by the naked eye from mined diamonds, in quantities pushing 200k carats of diamonds per month. Synthetic diamonds still only account for %1 of rough diamond sales globally, but that is expected to expand to between 7.5% to 15% by 2020.
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China's Lab-Grown Diamonds Look Good
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Grelb's Reminder:
Eighty percent of all people consider themselves to be above
average drivers.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday November 19 2018, @04:11PM (9 children)
With this we can flood the market with gems that are discernible from slave-labor gems, and run them out of business.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday November 19 2018, @04:14PM (3 children)
*indiscernible
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @04:48PM (1 child)
We were whispering in the darkness. The conversation touched on wildlife, poachers, and rhino horns. I asked if she would like a real rhino horn, and she said yes. But, the discerning young lady knew immediately that this horn wasn't taken from a rhino. Women are smarter than we like to give them credit for!
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday November 19 2018, @06:47PM
But is it a diamond-tipped rhino horn?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday November 19 2018, @08:20PM
Well, manufactured diamonds can be distinguished from mined diamonds, as mined diamonds have more imperfections, especially when viewed with a loupe or microscope, and can fluoresce differently when exposed to UV light, and can also phosphoresce differently. You can also discern differing patterns in polarised light.
More details here: https://www.gia.edu/identifying-lab-grown-diamonds [gia.edu]
I hope diamond prices drop, as diamond has very useful physical properties. There's a nice parlour* trick where you can use a diamond window (used in expensive spectroscopy equipment [1] [e6.com],[2] [ddk.com],[3] [sciencedirect.com]) as a knife to cut through an ice cube [youtube.com] - it transmits heat so well, it uses the heat from your hand to melt the ice. I would like to be able to demonstrate that at reasonable cost.
*For parlours with easy access do diamond windows used for spectroscopy. They are Not Cheap.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Monday November 19 2018, @05:38PM (4 children)
I wouldn't take a wager on this. The De Beers cartel is an astoundingly powerful and ruthless organization. They can, will, and have started wars and overthrown governments to protect their interests. They are the one corporation that I genuinely fear.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday November 19 2018, @06:16PM (1 child)
> They are the one corporation that I genuinely fear.
They sell diamonds.
I'm pretty sure they rank far below Monsanto, Dow & friends, Big Pharma, Big Oil, most of Wall Street ... on the list of evil corporations to be worried about.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @11:29PM
Don't forget PBS. They created Barney.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @06:27PM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by arslan on Monday November 19 2018, @11:54PM
Sure they are, but so is the chinese commie party. If this Lab has the Chinese Commie party's backing, my money's on the Chinese to squash them like bugs. Maybe DeBeers can go toe-to-toe with the next big corp or even small-mid sized govies, but going against the Chinese behemoth is suicide.