Since the late 1800s, scientists and engineers have been fascinated by the process of creating a true diamond in the lab. Before 1955, creating a fully lab-grown diamond was nothing more than a pipe dream until General Electrics proved that it was finally possible to create a fully lab grown diamond. Nevertheless, these diamonds were far from those that most people were familiar with, being small and of very low quality. For a further half-century, lab-grown diamonds would remain unmarketable and unsellable, only finding use in industrial applications. The development of new technology at the turn of the millennium would soon change all that when it became possible to grow high-quality diamonds reliably.

Natural forces grow diamonds from the earth over a very long period of time, producing them through incredibly high temperatures and pressures. In a lab, those conditions are mimicked, but the process is sped up considerably to create man made diamonds.

Diamonds mined from the earth, and those grown in laboratories are completely indistinguishable from one another; even the best gemmologist cannot distinguish between the two because lab grown diamonds have the same molecular and chemical composition as mined diamonds, hence the same physical and optical properties.

Imitations or knockoff diamonds cannot claim the same. Let’s delve deeper into what makes a diamond truly a diamond, not an imitation. Basically, diamonds are pure carbon with a unique sold form, which is only one of several allotropes of carbon solids that exist depending on their chemical bonds. Diamonds are the only gemstones made up of a single element, typically about 99.5% carbon. They are crystalline forms of carbon allotropes. In the remaining 0.05%, there may be trace elements, atoms of other elements, such as boron and nitrogen, that are not essential to a diamond’s chemistry or structure but affect its shape or colour. In both mined and lab grown diamonds, these trace elements are naturally formed as part of the creation process, including radiation exposure.

It is inherently impossible to trace mined diamonds, as it is with other pure elements like copper and iron. Unlike natural diamonds, lab grown diamonds can be traced back to the original lab that produced them. Mined diamonds are often sold with reassuring terms like “clean origin” or “conflict free”, but their true origins can never really be confirmed with any degree of certainty, regardless of what the diamond companies claim. In reality, all these claims amount to nothing more than marketing buzzwords to reassure clients since earth-mined diamonds change hands at least 30-40 times from their extraction to their final sale.

Any capable laboratory can grade and certify diamonds that are grown in a lab as well as diamonds that are mined. The certificates are identical as far as certification is concerned; they contain the same information. Laboratory-grown diamonds will only have an indication such as “Laboratory-grown” or “Laboratory-created” on their certificate for clarification purposes in order to differentiate them from mined diamonds.

A topic that we and many others in the industry are passionate about is that of Ethical versus Unethical diamonds. It is precisely this issue that prompted us to deal exclusively with lab grown diamonds and not mined diamonds.

It has been proven time and time again that diamond mining harms both the environment and the people who mine them as well. There is an unfathomable human cost associated with extracting a conflict diamond. In the mining process, whole populations are displaced and harmed, including miners, many of whom are enslaved, their children, and their families. Even disregarding the human cost, diamond mining, or mining for any stone, requires cutting and sifting through an incredible amount of soil. In order to provide a rough idea of the scale of mining, it takes 250 tonnes to dig up 1 carat of gem-quality diamond. The destruction of so much habitable land as a result of blowing up and digging up mountains to find a single small stone destroys entire communities and ecosystems.

There are other dire consequences of mining besides the destruction of the earth. A monumental amount of energy is also needed for the mining process, which almost always comes from fossil fuels. An enormous amount of carbon dioxide is emitted from this industry, and it is almost always underreported. Furthermore, a variety of toxic chemicals are constantly mixed with water, often from aquifers and rivers, to process ores and clean gems like diamonds. In the end, the toxic slurry is unceremoniously dumped on the previously fertile land, thereby practically contaminating it. Whether it is rivers, ponds, or, most importantly, groundwater, essential drinking sources are rendered unfit for consumption. Thus, it comes as no surprise that we take the ethical versus unethical debate very seriously as a young company trying to bring positive change. In order to ensure that our customers receive only the most ethical and sustainable products, we will never be a party to the destruction of the earth and its inhabitants.

An industry term referring to the full range of steps that a diamond goes through during its entire lifecycle is called ‘rough to retail’. The end-to-end process begins with finding a mined diamond or creating a lab-grown diamond and ends when it’s sold to the final customer after entering the retail market. From ‘Rough to Retail’, lab-grown diamonds are processed in the same manner as mined diamonds, including sorting, cutting, polishing, grading, and certification. Due to the identical intervening processes and costs, both lab-grown and mined diamonds are exactly the same in ‘Rough to Retail’

An interesting fact is that mined diamonds tend to be more suitable for ideal/excellent Cut grades than man-made diamonds. As mined diamonds come in all shapes and sizes, they are shaped and cut to maximize their yield as much as possible, prioritizing ct weight above all else. On the other hand, a grown diamond will be cut specifically for the best cut possible and, on average, will result in stones of a superior cut grade due to labs focusing on growing diamonds into shapes that are ready to be easily cut into gems.