Sales of mined diamonds are falling with consumers tempted by cheaper, some say more ethical, lab-grown alternatives. But just how similar are they?
Diamonds are forever, at least that’s what we’ve believed for the past 77 years since De Beers, the world’s largest diamond company, propagated that slogan and made billions in the process. They’re a girl’s best friend, too. And they’re the engagement or Valentine’s stone, symbolising eternal love, with prices to match that status.
Yet the exclusive diamond industry is now riven with magma-hot tensions. Dazzling rocks formed over billions of years in the depths of the Earth have a rival in the form of equally sparkly lab-grown – or synthetic – diamonds, made in weeks. Both are ranked as diamonds by the International Gemological Institute but buyers are going wild for the second, cheaper version.
‘This is the industry topic of the moment,’ says gemmologist Helen Dimmick.
‘Lab-grown diamonds are not fakes, they are physically, chemically and optically the same as natural diamonds. You can’t tell the difference with a jeweller’s loupe, the only way is to use a special machine that detects growth patterns.’
Production methods apart, there’s a key difference between the two: cost. With rapidly improving technology, prices for lab-grown diamonds are continually dropping, now selling for between 33% and 80% less than their mined equivalents. Latest figures show lab-grown accounted for 10% of diamond jeweller y sales in 2022 internationally, up from just 2% in 2018. By the end of this year, the industry forecasts it to be worth £14bn worldwide. Unsurprisingly in a cost-of-living crisis, sales of natural diamonds are down 23% year-on-year as customers realise they can buy a mined diamond’s twin and still have change for a fabulous holiday.
So why would anyone still buy natural? ‘I find looking at the definition adopted by the industry really helps – a gemstone is rare, durable and beautiful,’ Dimmick says. ‘Lab-grown diamonds are still the strongest, hardest material known to man. They’re incredibly beautiful with their fire, brilliance and scintillation, but they are not rare. When we think of love we think of something that’s durable and beautiful, and when something’s also rare it becomes the ultimate symbol of that. A lab-grown diamond is more of a technological phenomenon.’
Yet many dismiss the idea of mined diamonds’ rarity as a myth perpetuated by the industry to stimulate desire. From its inception in 1888 until the early 21st century, De Beers controlled around 85% of the world’s diamond supply. It purposefully held back stones to create demand. ‘Diamonds are beau
