What Man-Made Diamonds Are?

Published on January 24th, 2023

If you are looking to buy an engagement ring or some other type of jewellery for your partner, you are most likely considering the purchase of diamond jewellery. And that is expected – diamonds are the most popular, durable, and, according to a lot of people, the most beautiful of minerals. They are a true classic when it comes to precious stones.

One of the biggest factors that may be stopping you from making the purchase right is the price of diamonds. But what if we told you that diamonds are not necessarily extremely expensive, and can actually be forgiving for your budget? That is exactly what man-made diamonds are.

Naturally Mined Diamonds

For a long time, there was only one way of actually producing a polished and crafted diamond ready to be put on top of a beautiful ring.

A diamond has to meet special environmental conditions, such as a high temperature and pressure, in order to form, it has to be discovered, mined with heavy machinery and hard labour, and only then it can be transported (often over long distances) to experts for polishing and attaching to a ring.

This process is long and tedious, and it comes with a significant threat to the environment. The carbon footprint of the diamond-mining industry is notoriously unclear, and the cost of the whole process plays a big role in making naturally mined diamonds too expensive for ordinary customers.

Man-Made Diamonds

The good news is that there are diamonds that will spare your wallet without cutting on the quality, or on any other aspect of naturally mined diamonds. Those are lab grown diamonds.

The first man-made diamonds were produced in the middle of the 20th century, and the first products proved to have the same shine, reflection, color and quality as natural diamonds.

They are produced in special laboratories that replicate the natural conditions needed in order to have a beautiful diamond in nature. Researchers found out that there is a special combination of high temperature and pressure that can be replicated in a lab environment in order to create a diamond that is as real as any.

In fact, lab grown man-made diamonds are essentially considered to be the same as mined diamonds in terms of classification.

Perhaps the biggest dealmaker for buying lab grown diamonds instead of mined ones is the price: the former are significantly cheaper. Why? Remember how long of a process it takes to mine a diamond and actually get it to a ring, and can you imagine the number of people involved in this process? – well, with lab grown diamonds, this process is significantly easier and faster. This reduces the cost of the diamond by a huge margin.

Ever since they were first produced, lab grown diamonds have caused a significant debate over whether buying mined diamonds is worth it anymore – after all, the man-made versions are more ethical, easier to produce and simply more affordable.

Caring For The Environment

Perhaps it is not everyone’s first concern, but being environmentally friendly has become a very important topic in the last decade. Man-made diamonds definitely deliver on this front, as they are much more forgiving to nature. The carbon footprint of lab grown diamonds is several times smaller than that of mined diamonds.

It’s no surprise – the excavation of diamonds can often cause great damage to the environment; damage that may even be irreversible. It involves digging and moving large chunks of soil, polluting the air and water resources, and harming wildlife in the excavation area.

Another less known factor in the environmental hazard of mining diamonds is the harm that a diamond mine can have on local farms and agriculture. Even though it does not directly damage the crops or the cattle, the mining activities interfere with the delicate balance needed to create a successful and productive farm.

Lab grown diamonds essentially avoid all of those risks. The carbon footprint of man-made diamonds is there, of course – electricity is needed to produce them – but it is substantially lower than that of its natural counterpart.

Hard Labour

Man-made diamonds do not involve toiling work and back-breaking digging associated with mining. It is known that in order to mine a few carats of diamonds, workers often have to dig hundreds upon hundreds of tons of soil.

That of course poses not only an environmental question on mining but also an ethical one. With lab grown diamonds, the whole production process becomes much more responsible and transparent.

No Difference In Quality

Another myth you may have heard about lab grown diamonds is probably related to their quality and that they are allegedly of lower quality than their mined counterparts. In reality, there is essentially no difference in the quality between a man-made diamond and naturally mined diamonds.

An expert can distinguish them, but they would not base their decision on quality, but rather on some minor physical characteristics, namely the inclusion of the diamonds.

A Matter Of Personal Choice

At the end of the day, choosing whether to go for a mined diamond or a man-made one is a matter of personal choice.

Of course, the advantages of lab grown diamonds are numerous and perhaps the only reason not to choose them is simply principle. If you free yourself from the stigma that if you are going to buy a diamond, it should definitely be excavated from a mine on the other side of the world – the choice becomes quite easy, and you will save a lot of money.

Man-made diamonds are just as beautiful and just as durable, and they have proven that customers are choosing them more and more in recent years.

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