Ethical controversy over natural diamonds grows, demand for man-made diamonds widens

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2023-11-28

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At present, about 1/4 of the natural diamonds circulating in the world market are sold at high prices to finance illegal armed conflicts and wars. In some regions, there is even an illegal trade in direct exchange of diamonds for weapons of mass destruction. The blood brought by this trade far exceeds the environmental problems of natural diamonds and the problem of child labor among miners.

Mass-produced and low-priced man-made diamonds obviously cannot meet this special large capital demand, so to some extent, it has slowed down the development of the man-made diamond market, but it is also inevitable: the synthetic cost of man-made diamonds is low, The price is low and environmentally friendly; at the same time, it also avoids disputes about the ethical issues related to transactions; and there is no difference between diamond attributes and natural diamonds. For natural and man-made issues, the chairman of the Israeli diamond consulting company Even-Zohar gave his own views: for modern young consumers, buy a diamond from the "ground" and from the "underground" diamond in the end how much difference?

In fact, the physical properties and chemical composition of synthetic man-made diamonds are no different from natural diamonds dug underground. The preparation of an artificial drill takes less than 10 weeks, and the finished product is very delicate. To distinguish between artificial and natural drills, we must rely on high-precision machine detection to distinguish.

According to an industry research report released by Bloomberg, artificial diamond sales accounted for only a small part of the global $0.8 billion diamond sales in 2014; in 2014, artificial diamond production was about 360000 carats, while natural diamond production reached 0.146 billion carats.

A survey of consumers aged 18 to 35 in North America shows that nearly half of consumers still love natural diamonds. But the industry predicts that by 2026, the production of man-made diamonds will soar to 20 million carats. Walmart and Warren Buffett's Helzberg Diamonds are said to have begun stockpiling synthetic diamonds.

In the game of diamond market share seizure, the producers and sellers of natural diamonds are still playing the romantic card. They believe that only natural diamonds buried in the ground for tens of billions of years can bear all kinds of beautiful meanings given to diamonds by people. Behind each natural diamond that has experienced time precipitation, there is a unique natural and human story, which is incomparable to diamonds produced by laboratories. According to the survey, a 1 karat natural diamond in a New York jewelry store in the United States has a market value of US $10000, while a man-made diamond of the same 1 karat is only US $6,000. In contrast, the price advantage of man-made diamonds is self-evident, and it greatly avoids The related moral disputes brought about by natural diamonds, and its consumer demand will be great in the future.

Vishal Mehta, CEO of IIA Technologies Singapore, said: "We are creating a new industry and becoming a prolific producer of synthetic diamonds. The "pure" diamond, which is environmentally friendly and free of moral arguments, is increasingly accepted by modern consumers; this is also a turning point in the development of synthetic diamonds."

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