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.
(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.