Though diamonds are known to be one of the best gemstones in the world, they can be very expensive. It doesn’t help either that there have been so many issues associated with them, such as diamond mining conflict in a number of African countries. There’s also the issue of monopoly in the market. To create an alternative for diamond buyers, manufacturers came up with synthetic diamonds.
These, however, have their downsides. They are not really of great quality, so it’s not advisable to make use of synthetic diamonds in industrial applications. They also have little resale value. Most of all, it’s slowly killing the natural diamond industry, simply because synthetic diamonds are easy to reproduce and sell.
To help curb the problem, the diamond industry has taken a number of measures to stop the proliferation of synthetic diamonds. For example, De Beers, the largest trader of diamonds in the world, is currently implementing some rules that can help consumers determine the difference between real and synthetic diamonds. This is to prevent any confusion by the customers; thus, they end up paying more for a synthetic diamonds.
On the other hand, diamond industry in South Africa has implemented the use of screening instruments that are currently sold in the market to help people separate genuine diamonds from manufactured stones, such as synthetic diamonds.
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March 17th, 2008 at 3:58 am
today tonight story on Australian valuers who value synthetic diamonds as natural
Diamonds are forever, sooner
Today Tonight took the diamond to four jewellery stores to be valued by experts, all members of the National Council of Jewellery Valuers .
The lowest valuation was $3,100, then $3,800… $4,150… and a stunning $4,330 , four times its value. the stone was synthetic.