How De Beers Learned to Love Lab-Grown Diamonds

The white, pink and blue Lightbox diamonds are currently manufactured at De Beers' Element Six manufacturing facility in the UK, and assembled into jewellery in Thailand Diamonds are made in labs by subjecting "Seeds" to intense pressure and heat in order to mimic the conditions in which they are created underground, or through a process where carbon atoms are grown inside a gas chamber Martin Roscheisen, chief executive of Diamond Foundry, the largest lab-grown diamond producer in the US, said his company can compete with De Beers by focusing on "Unique" lab-grown diamonds larger than one carat, which he said are technologically more difficult to grow.

"We welcome De Beers' move into the market; it legitimises the category and is a sign that man-made diamonds are here to stay," he said De Beers' research has shown that consumers want synthetic diamonds to complement their outfit, but not to mark a meaningful life moment, Morrison said Presents data on the environmental footprint of mined and man-made diamonds, concluding that "[lab-grown] diamonds require an order of magnitude less energy to make than mined diamonds require to harvest".

Diamond Foundry doesn't use the term "Lab-grown"; it prefers to call its stones "Above ground" diamonds and refers to its manufacturing plant as a "Foundry." . Source