There is a lot of controversy around the cultured diamond. These diamonds are synthetic, or in other words, not naturally made. While experts can tell them apart from real diamonds, experts do believe that they can be helpful when added to the industry. Synthetic diamonds are diamond crystals that have been produced by a very complex, technological process. In short, this method is a geological process done by man. At a recent diamond conference held in Europe, the topic of cultured diamonds came up. The leading investment and corporate leaders in the industry talked about the effects that the cultured diamond would have on the markets. The key is that they did not say the diamond would cause the natural occurring diamond’s prices to fall. Rather, they believe that the synthetic formed diamonds will in fact help to provide some solution to the problem of demand, which the diamond industry has had a difficult time keeping up with. Yet, in the same breath, these experts say that they believe that the public will always seek out the true diamonds..
Understanding Synthetic Diamonds
There are benefits to the diamond industry in terms of cultured diamonds. These diamonds can be in production for a far less price, much less than the cost of mining natural diamonds and then processing them. These diamonds can be in use in many of the same situations that natural diamonds will work in. The fact that engineers can actually make diamonds like this has been a way to help provide real diamonds (though cultured) to the public at a lower price, allowing more people than ever to be able to enjoy them.
The concern since the beginning of the process of producing cultured diamonds has not changed. The belief is that if manufacturing diamonds through technology is less expensive and it produces a quality product, the value of real diamonds would drop, and drop quite quickly.
In 1797, it was a discovery that diamonds were in fact made of pure carbon, a product readily available. Since that time, there has been an incredible amount of attempts at manufacturing the synthetic diamond. In most early cases, the process was difficult and it often resulted in failure. While the project failed repeatedly, it wasn’t until 1941 that a true effort, called the GE Diamond Project, was undertaking. During that project, experts from several leading companies were able to heat carbon to 3000 degrees C and under an extreme amount of pressure (half a million psi) for a short amount of time. The first diamond came about in 1954. It was complete through experiments and trial and error. Through time, this method would also change.
The Current Questions
Over time, the development of cultured diamonds has been able to be improved so much so that it has gotten to the point of being economical to do. The process does not take as much time as it once did and the overall process has improved in safety, costs and overall acceptable diamond results. Cultured diamonds are chemically as well as structurally the same as naturally found diamonds.
At the diamond conference that occurred, experts talked about what the cultured diamond would do for the industry. The problem that most see is that the supply of rough gems that is currently available is likely to fall short of the demand for it. In the next five to seven years, there is a risk that there simply will not be enough diamonds to be readily available for sale to match the demand. In a way, the cultured diamond would help to extinguish some of the demand from now until then and after that period happens as well.
Although they will fill this need, experts at the conference believe that the culture diamond will be just that, a substitution that will not replace the authentic diamond, and the natural diamond will not lose its value in the process. They believe that a cultured diamond, while just as beautiful and as unique, will be unable to compete with the natural diamond.
The executives, leaders and company professionals that attended the conference were able to show that the diamond industry is likely to accept the cultured diamond as a valuable asset and it will be in use to help keep the supply of diamonds high enough to meet demand, but it will never take the place of a true, mined diamond. One executive compared the cultured diamond to the Californian wine makers who produce fine quality wine that does not come from France. While both are in demand, they are not directly competition with each other as the same product as is with the diamonds.
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