How lab diamonds are shaking up the world of fine jewellery

Of course, the most environmentally-friendly way of buying diamonds is not to buy new diamonds, synthetic or natural, at all For the big jewellery houses the shift towards synthetic has proved more problematic Take historic brand De Beers, which monopolised the diamond market for well over a century and is still the world's largest miner, with exclusive access to Botswana's entire supply chain.

Having coined the phrase "a diamond is forever", for years, De Beers expressed its reluctance to embrace synthetic diamonds, preferring to focus on the image of mined diamonds as rare, eternal and the only option for engagement rings The house performed a U-turn with Lightbox, a new range of lab-grown diamonds produced under the De Beers Group umbrella With a US$94 million facility in Oregon, Lightbox aims to produce 500,000 synthetic carats per year by 2020.

Prices are US$800 per carat; by comparison, a one-carat mined diamond will usually sell for about US$8,000. . Source