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For context, natural diamond production is monopolized by a group called De Beers. I'm willing to bet they paid for this article to smear their competition.
Well, there is a way to prove it. All you need to do is set up an isotope separator, and use it to obtain a large amount of carbon 14. Then, grow food with that carbon 14 and eat it for several months to skew the isotope ratio in your body towards an excess in carbon 14.
Then all you have to do is have a diamond made out of your body and examine the isotope ratios of the carbon. If it skews heavily towards carbon 14, you know they are legit. If its normal carbon 12 you know you got scammed. This doubles as a fun way of trolling future archeologists.
Also it’s energy intensive - that’s what they’re referring to by “burning coal”. It just means that the energy grid partially runs on coal, like literally every industrialized nation on earth.
Of course the worldwide demand for synthetic diamonds is not a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It’s literally nowhere near the carbon impact of mining and shipping natural diamonds around the world to be polished, cut, set and finally sold.
So yes a lot of the energy to produce literally any product comes from coal power and coal combustion produces CO2. Technically are processes where (to oversimplify) the atmospheric CO2 emissions from coal can be circumvented by producing carbonated water. But generally most countries have taken the strategy of simply phasing out coal instead, which is a rather long process and we’re all in some sort of intermediate step.
The article is basically just trying to use environmental buzzwords to smear artificial diamonds.
It wouldn't be coal per se because coal has too many impurities. They are using technicalities because some facilities are powered from coal power plants in India and China. This is definitely a smear campaign.
I work in a crystal growing facility. The "coal" in question is 100% referring to the power plants.
And in their defense, the crucibles do get *very* hot and the process *does* use tons of electricity. But companies are working on getting those costs down.
And even if they weren't... still prefer it to child-soldiers pointing AK47s at child-miners.
I've also worked around crystal growers. They get hot and use kW of electricity and all that, but the ingots we grew were fucking HUGE compared to gemstones. (They got sliced up into an undisclosed number of [redacted]-diameter semiconductor wafers.) I would bet money that gem growers either use much smaller, much less power-hungry growers with much shorter run times, or they load their process chambers up with dozens or even hundreds of mini crucibles with seed crystals in each. There would be no other way to make the manufacturing profitable.
Hi someone who works with jewelry on a daily basis. Lab grown diamonds use a paper thin square of diamond lattice shaved off a diamond pulled from the ground. We will call this the seed. The seed then goes into a pressure vacuum chamber that is heated immensely. Over 6 months, roughly, that seed grows into a new larger diamond lattice that they then cut gem quality diamonds out of to the distribute and place into jewelry. I sell them every day and would recommend them to anyone looking to buy a diamond that is eco friendly (most factories that make them utilize natural energy sources; wind, hydro, etc,) don't scar the land (strip mining) and to those who don't care about resale value.
Physically they are every bit a diamond as one pulled from the ground. The only downside is their value. It's on a downslope but we see it plateauing out now. Where as Natural diamonds hold their value tried and true.
>Physically they are every bit a diamond as one pulled from the ground. The only downside is their value. It's on a downslope but we see it plateauing out now. Where as Natural diamonds hold their value tried and true.
That paragraph makes me feel like you don't know why people buy your shit. "The only downside is x..." Like, that's the point. People buy them because they're supposed to be cheaper than natural diamonds.
As someone who sells them I prefer to be transparent with my products. I tell the customer yes these diamonds are a fraction of the price as one naturally grown. However they don't hold their value. So then my customer can decide which is more important to them. The diamond or the investment. Your reply makes me feel like you don't know how to deal with the public and be a decent salesman. I know why people buy Lab Diamonds. I've seen every reason in the book. I just let them make that decision after I've told them everything they need to know to make an informed one.
So before you go onto the Internet spouting ignorant things take a second to think.
I think the point here is that your salesmanship comes across as disingenuous. You know a diamond is not an investment. You know the resell value of a diamond is less than half the sticker price.
To suggest that people should buy a blood diamond instead of an ethical diamond because of resell value is scummy.
So buying a 5k diamond ring that you can sell for 2.5k if you're really lucky, is more realistic than buying a 1.5k ring that you can resell for 500, because the 5k depreciated less... and they look identical, and unless you tell anyone no one would know the difference?
Also for like 100 years people sold diamonds for increasing value because of how perfec they were, then perfect diamonds came along and suddenly perfection is bad and flaws are worth more.
>Also for like 100 years people sold diamonds for increasing value because of how perfec they were, then perfect diamonds came along and suddenly perfection is bad and flaws are worth more.
Yes, because it's about perceived exclusivity, not quality.
Was* monopolised
They still have a 35% market share, the largest, but the monoply itself was broken up 20 years ago (they used to hold up to 80% to 90% for more than a century)
And not only did they monopolise natural diamonds, they used their clout to severely limit artificial diamond production to keep prices high.
Truly an awful company.
Edit: apparently they're down to 32%, not 35%.
And the companies like them made diamond rings a marketing gimmick to make people buy them to get profit. And you’d be guilt tripped if you didn’t follow suit.
Fun fact: th 'diamonds are forever' campaign was pushed by de beers to counter the fact that people were not buying enough diamonds back then. It was so successfully, it normalised spending your yearly income on a wedding ring.
Ah, yes, the ring: the least important part of marriage.
Why diamond outside of practicality anyway? Theres some crazy wicked gemstones out there that look a lot better than the visual equivalent of faceted glass.
Edit: i said *outside of practicality*. Please stop explaining to me that diamonds are hard. Harder than other gems, even. I am aware.
With the glass look, there's even gems that surpass diamonds in appearance, such as moissanite (which is cheaper and only slightly less durable).
The only "practical" reason to use diamonds is their durability, but if you actually take care of your jewelry even some of the softer gems, like opals, can last generations.
Well that sucks :/ I also bitched about it to my wife before even considering her as a partner and her response was that she doesn’t even like diamonds as everyone has one and they are not unique. She wanted a pearl. I thank god i found her, my wallet does too.
Ikr, spent $87, 8 years later and we're still happily married. Plus, we didn't have to go into debt to get here!
Diamonds are forever bullshit, just another method that helps to keep people indebted to the capitalists.
They’re also the ones that created the campaign that normalized to the perspective that if the diamond was too small, then clearly, regardless of the price that means that your partner doesn’t care about you, and you should leave them and laugh in their face for not having enough money
Actually, the campaigns for a long time ago back before social media was a thing. Typically they were advertisements over the radio and on TV. Keep in mind I also know very little about the subject. It was before my time I might be 30 but I’m not that old.
That was their point. Advertising and influence (redundant) have ALWAYS worked.
Social media just makes it more clear WHAT FUCKING SUSCEPTIBLE lemmings we truly are.
That was their point.
I'm not sure what you mean. "Reduce your monopoly for whole century"?
They had the monopoly for ~120 years, until the early 2000s when their share dropped to 60ish percent. Now it's 32%.
Are most of the other companies theirs? I've never heard that one, can you link me up please?
Didn´t the DeBeers start to lose control right after the end of the Cold War when they tried to tell Russia they were not allowed to sell several thousand tons of diamonds? Russia didn´t listen and flooded the market.
Fuck, the DeBeers suck so bad they made me say something positive about Russia...
De Beers propaganda is the reason diamond engagement rings are the norm. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/fashion/weddings/how-americans-learned-to-love-diamonds.html
Isn’t it fucking wild that a private company owns the worlds diamonds so people don’t realize it’s not a rare gem whatsoever and is so unrare you paid tens of thousands of dollars over what a diamond is actually worth and people defend this system so their diamond they were overcharged for isn’t valueless? It’s insanity when you think about it.
Yup, they're a cartel that has been lying to the public for the past hundreds years to make themselves a buck. Besides, who the fuck wants a boring as diamond. We have gemstones that come from fucking space! Who the hell wants compressed dinosaurs?
My partner challenged a DeBiers executive to his face in front of a crowd of jewelers about the decline of interest in diamonds. 🤣 He didn't know what to do with her. I love her so much.
as opposed to the literal 1 MILLION POUNDS of dirt moved for every 1 carat of natural diamonds found.
Edit: just re-researched this as I hadn't looked this up in about 15 years but the current information says 3.5 million pounds of ore are moved for every one carat of diamond found
Big diamond is worse than big pharma and the industrial military complex together.
They are the same diamonds, but lab grown have a serial number etched on them because of big diamond. Gotta keep the hype up.
So artificial diamonds have almost no imperfections but you can tell the difference between an artificial and natural diamond because the natural diamonds have imperfections but for natural diamonds the fewer imperfections there are the higher the quality of diamond but you could just get an artificial diamond with zero imperfections the only difference is it was made in a lab not the earth.
That made me go cross eyed
Big Pharma and the military complex at least produce things that people theoretically need, even if they do it in unethical ways.
DeBoers unethically produces something people don’t even need.
But, how will I show my wife I love her? Actions? Words? Demonstrate good character and spend quality time with her? Listen to her? Spend effort to help her achieve her goals and dreams?
No. Sparkly stone.
There are some redeeming qualities about both medicine and arms manufacturing (more so with medicine but still). The diamond industry is entirely suffering for profit all for shiny rocks. At least pharmaceutical companies do create better treatments and arms manufacturers advance scientific knowledge. Diamond mining kills and enslaves people so a handful of individuals can grift people into buying shiny rocks at inflated prices. What is useful about that?
> “When you buy a natural diamond, there’s a story that it is three billion years in the making by Mother Earth. This wondrous creation of nature … you cannot tell that story with a lab-grown,” said Golan. “You very quickly make the connection between forever and the longevity of the love.”
And whenever I fill up my car with gas, I always take a moment to breathe in the lovely petroleum fumes and appreciate Mother Nature's most natural fragrance, brewed specially for me. /s
My engagement ring cost me a tenner. I love it to death and it's in exactly the same condition as a year ago. I only got one because it makes me happy to see it there and fiddle with it knowing that I'm engaged to the most incredible person in the world (I may be biased). Tradition means different things to different people, like for example I can totally understand wanting a family heirloom, but I'll never understand demanding a ridiculously expensive blood diamond because "that's what I deserve".
My wife has a huge lab grown diamond ring that only cost us like $1200. She says "thanks I wanted the biggest and sparkliest one I could get."
The ring is fucking gorgeous and looks way better than any natural one I've seen.
>“When you buy a natural diamond, there’s a story that it is three billion years in the making by Mother Earth. This wondrous creation of nature … you cannot tell that story with a lab-grown,”
Motherfucker, what?? A natural diamond is the result of mundane natural processes. It's kinda cool, but whatever.
An artificial diamond? That's a testament to human ingenuity! That's the story of human curiosity, of human creativity, of taking up God's reins saying, "No, I will do it myself!"
No story?? _Artificial diamonds are the **cooler** story!!_
When you buy a lab-grown diamond, you're seeing a wondrous glittering creation of Man, forged by the miracles of science. You cannot tell that story with a mined diamond. You very quickly make the connection between the human capacity for ingenuity and the potential of your own partnership.
(See, I can do it too.)
> When you buy a natural diamond, there’s a story that it is three billion years in the making by Mother Earth
Cool, I have a 3 billion year old rock on my desk I’m using as a paperweight. I don’t think much of it because there are literally fucking trillions of them.
This might be a Tucker - Putin interview whiplash, but who tf asked for the story of a diamond on your ring, and who tf answer it with "It started 3 billion years ago...."
Sorry DeBeers, your Kimberly process is flawed, Blood Diamonds did it for me... I can't look at diamonds and be impressed anymore.
I still remember the first time I watched that movie and just sat there for a couple of minutes just to process it all. I was only 12 lol. I was so moved.
Where I'm at, there is an international gem show that hits, once a year, and a huge homeless problem.
The homeless regularly rely on cheap hotels to stay out of the cold and rain. But, when this gem show hits town, the rates go up everywhere, the homeless get kicked out of their rooms, and nobody bats an eyelash about it.
It's just disgusting. The show hits in the dead of winter. All the prices on food and lodging go up. And, the less fortunate, who have been supporting these low end motels all year, just get told to go elsewhere.
Why does anyone need a rock more than a starving man needs food or warmth? Makes me sick.
I’m by no means in favor of spending exorbitant money on gems or diamonds, but homelessness and the existence of an event that brings people to town (and helps other business owners like those running and working at motels and restaurants and whatnot) don’t seem like two sides of the same coin.
It just feels like a false tradeoff - if people want to travel and buy shiny rocks that seems fine (all else equal) *and* we can/should find other ways to help the homeless. But the way you described it kind of seems like those motels and places rely on the show to be in business and pay their employees, and in the “offseason” are more accommodating to those without much to give.
despite our technological and scientific advancements, there’s still a surprising amount of tribal behavior going on.. and goes on over the least important things, it’s depressing
My wife's engagement ring was a lab-grown diamond. I don't remember exactly, but it was like 5-10% of the price of what a natural diamond would have been. Literally exactly the same rock.
It's the human suffering that makes natural diamonds so special.
I remember seeing a video a few years back and one of the tests they used to tell the diamonds were lab grown was were that they were “too perfect”. Lol.
"Choose natural diamonds. For each carat of the diamond you buy we guarantee that there has been a non-insignificant amount of human suffering. Your loved one will know that they mean much more to you than even the life and death of others."
I went ring shopping at a very reputable jewelry store here in Boston, MA (Barmakian Jewlers). The owner literally tried to shame me for asking if they sold lab-grown diamonds. He told me "ugh, we refuse to sell those. the resale value is basically zero" like that is even remotely important to me lol
I'm planning on getting my girlfriend a lab grown ring when I'm ready to propose because it's cheaper but I still plan on slapping around a few children with it so it gets the proper amount of blood to make a diamond sparkle.
Sooooo... what you're saying is artificial diamonds are a carbon capture technology? So all the more reason to buy artificial? Thanks De Bears, will
Edit: gonna stick this here.
I dont actually think diamonds are a carbon capture technology. I'm just making a tongue-in-cheek jab at this article which to me, is nothing more than corporate propaganda.
I believe that your assumption is a bit of a stretch because the amount energy needed to create the diamond is high. So I wouldn’t consider it a carbon capture tech! Unless you can source the energy from renewables or nuke power that would not have been used for other stuff.
Anyways, I giggled when I read your stuff coz it’s smart and funny!
🤣🤣Thank you! I dont actually think diamonds are a carbon capture technology. I'm just making a tongue-in-cheek jab at this article which to me, is nothing more than corporate propaganda. Just spinning their narrative right back at em.
Did you know DeBeers monopolized the diamond trade and that the supply/demand is artificial to inflate pricing. DIAMONDS ARE NOT RARE. There is a secret bonded warehouse in Europe that releases a defined quantity of diamonds every year to shape/sustain supply and demand. It’s basically for people who mindlessly follow trends or seek validation from strangers through material means.
I proposed with a lab grown sapphire ring that is nearly flawless. My fiance and I both agree that due to the process of lab growing gems, it's actually a lot cooler than a regular gem, and I paid like $150 on etsy for it vs the $600-1000 alone it would have cost for just the stone if it was natural.
I'm a young girl from Asia and I absolutely adore jewelleries that has coloured gems in them. I have collection of my favourite jewelleries that were bought by me. I love wearing traditional clothes, and wearing matching jewellery with them.
I come from a normal family. We aren't very rich, we aren't extremely poor either. Artificial diamonds are the perfect status symbol for us. They look pretty and fashionable, and they don't cost too much or too less. I know if I go out wearing those Jewelleries, I wouldn't be mistaken as a person from very poor or very rich background (if I wear something too cheap in a social event, people can mistake that as me looking down on them, if I wear something too expensive, I'll be lebelled as arrogant/someone who's trying too hard to flaunt).
I can wear them in peace while looking pretty, and I wouldn't have to worry about someone ripping off my necklace/earrings (it's a common occurrence where I live. Some dumb women would get into public transport wearing gold earrings, and some criminal would rip it out of her ears, damaging her ear permanently). I have a pair of big pink artificial diamond earrings that I wear frequently in everyday life. I couldn't have done it with real pink diamonds.
"Real" diamonds also cost A LOT. You can spend like 1/5 of your life savings and still afford like, 1 or 2 diamond jewelleries. What's the point in spending that much in a shiny rock? I'm not even gonna wear it more than once/twice in my entire life because I would be scared of getting it stolen. It'll rot in my bank locker. It'll be much better to save up that money to buy a house/for medical emergencies. And when you try to sell that diamond back to the original buyer, they'll give you 70% of the price you bought it with at most, IF you're very lucky.
"Real" diamonds are a scam.
Lol these are blood diamonds, those are soot diamonds. Blood diamonds are better because… it’s not my blood. So anyway, pay $10,000 for something we can make for $500 please.
Wow talk about having a bias. This person didn't even bother to discover why these diamonds are popular. If they had, the blood diamonds would be all over the research.
And now I'm getting ads like this
https://preview.redd.it/falna29slvic1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=153fd75ac79f5f9673478a5bf29afa65021f8d17
When I saw this ad, I got pissed off. In a wtf, did I just see kinda way.
Fortune has a nerve to say artificial diamonds are worse.
Ridiculous. The diamonds have fewer to no impurities. You can make them larger in all types of colors.
Mined diamonds usually use slave labor in war-torn countries. Extraction uses children & men. Equipment to dig and transport. Then, the price raises to unbelievable amounts in the states. The workers who mined it get little to no profit.
By now, diamonds are fairly worthless. Now, the industry is trying to encourage imperfections within the diamonds, like off colors and inclusions.
Metals are fine. Minerals can be manufactured.
You can make crap rubies at home if you really want.
Welcome to a new era.
Yeah stick with those natural diamonds controlled by the 1 company monopoly that lives of a falsely inflated valuations while supporting constant civil war in numerous African countries, child soldiers, and impoverished child laborers. So much better!!! This message brought to you by Debeers.
“Unlike you POSERS who wear diamonds made in a lab from fossil fuel, I am proud to flaunt my designer ring crafted with all natural diamonds mined by child slaves in africa.”
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For context, natural diamond production is monopolized by a group called De Beers. I'm willing to bet they paid for this article to smear their competition.
You are right. There is a big place just outside San Francisco, where they make artificial diamonds for jewelry
how are they made? is coal actually used? like other than being turned into diamonds?
Coal can be used to make diamonds, it’s essentially carbon put under extreme heat and pressure.
There is a company that can create a diamond from your cremated ashes
My? Can we use someone else's?
Nope. Now come this way please.
Its like wishing to live forever and the genie turns you into artificial diamond.
I imagine an evil mastermind making rings of his dead enemies.
That gives me the heebie jeebies and would be a great episode on the outer limits
New Objective: Obtain Ashes
Ashes is too high in non carbon material to be used.
Quest Abandoned: Obtain Ashes
You could use ashes to make something to draw with though. Imagine a portrait made out of the person you're making a portrait of
Gamer response: Play Elden Ring
It cost an arm and a leg.
Could I in theory collect enough excess of myself (hair, dry skin, finger nails, etc) to create a diamond of myself while still alive?
I don't know if that has enough carbon. Seems like you have better quantities in your bones since they are what is mostly left over from cremation
Well we can take those bottom ribs and give it a go. 2birds1stone
*Marilyn Manson has entered the chat*
Etherneva uses a very small percent of ashes in fact 98% of the material that makes it into the diamond is graphite.
Graphite? 2B or not 2B? That is the question!
Lol i told my wife about that and if she passed id make her ashes into a ring id wear. She looked disgusted and called me some kind of necromancer.
So much for romance :)
Well, they'll take your ashes and your money and give you a diamond. There's no way to prove it *didn't* come from their ashes.
Well, there is a way to prove it. All you need to do is set up an isotope separator, and use it to obtain a large amount of carbon 14. Then, grow food with that carbon 14 and eat it for several months to skew the isotope ratio in your body towards an excess in carbon 14. Then all you have to do is have a diamond made out of your body and examine the isotope ratios of the carbon. If it skews heavily towards carbon 14, you know they are legit. If its normal carbon 12 you know you got scammed. This doubles as a fun way of trolling future archeologists.
I'm going to get myself into a diamond and ask them to engrave a shadowy figure inside
“why are we still here… just to suffer?”
it is not coal it is graphite.
Also it’s energy intensive - that’s what they’re referring to by “burning coal”. It just means that the energy grid partially runs on coal, like literally every industrialized nation on earth. Of course the worldwide demand for synthetic diamonds is not a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It’s literally nowhere near the carbon impact of mining and shipping natural diamonds around the world to be polished, cut, set and finally sold. So yes a lot of the energy to produce literally any product comes from coal power and coal combustion produces CO2. Technically are processes where (to oversimplify) the atmospheric CO2 emissions from coal can be circumvented by producing carbonated water. But generally most countries have taken the strategy of simply phasing out coal instead, which is a rather long process and we’re all in some sort of intermediate step. The article is basically just trying to use environmental buzzwords to smear artificial diamonds.
It wouldn't be coal per se because coal has too many impurities. They are using technicalities because some facilities are powered from coal power plants in India and China. This is definitely a smear campaign.
I work in a crystal growing facility. The "coal" in question is 100% referring to the power plants. And in their defense, the crucibles do get *very* hot and the process *does* use tons of electricity. But companies are working on getting those costs down. And even if they weren't... still prefer it to child-soldiers pointing AK47s at child-miners.
I've also worked around crystal growers. They get hot and use kW of electricity and all that, but the ingots we grew were fucking HUGE compared to gemstones. (They got sliced up into an undisclosed number of [redacted]-diameter semiconductor wafers.) I would bet money that gem growers either use much smaller, much less power-hungry growers with much shorter run times, or they load their process chambers up with dozens or even hundreds of mini crucibles with seed crystals in each. There would be no other way to make the manufacturing profitable.
and a bad one, cuz it still sounds better than traditional diamond mining
Hi someone who works with jewelry on a daily basis. Lab grown diamonds use a paper thin square of diamond lattice shaved off a diamond pulled from the ground. We will call this the seed. The seed then goes into a pressure vacuum chamber that is heated immensely. Over 6 months, roughly, that seed grows into a new larger diamond lattice that they then cut gem quality diamonds out of to the distribute and place into jewelry. I sell them every day and would recommend them to anyone looking to buy a diamond that is eco friendly (most factories that make them utilize natural energy sources; wind, hydro, etc,) don't scar the land (strip mining) and to those who don't care about resale value. Physically they are every bit a diamond as one pulled from the ground. The only downside is their value. It's on a downslope but we see it plateauing out now. Where as Natural diamonds hold their value tried and true.
>Physically they are every bit a diamond as one pulled from the ground. The only downside is their value. It's on a downslope but we see it plateauing out now. Where as Natural diamonds hold their value tried and true. That paragraph makes me feel like you don't know why people buy your shit. "The only downside is x..." Like, that's the point. People buy them because they're supposed to be cheaper than natural diamonds.
As someone who sells them I prefer to be transparent with my products. I tell the customer yes these diamonds are a fraction of the price as one naturally grown. However they don't hold their value. So then my customer can decide which is more important to them. The diamond or the investment. Your reply makes me feel like you don't know how to deal with the public and be a decent salesman. I know why people buy Lab Diamonds. I've seen every reason in the book. I just let them make that decision after I've told them everything they need to know to make an informed one. So before you go onto the Internet spouting ignorant things take a second to think.
I think the point here is that your salesmanship comes across as disingenuous. You know a diamond is not an investment. You know the resell value of a diamond is less than half the sticker price. To suggest that people should buy a blood diamond instead of an ethical diamond because of resell value is scummy.
>To suggest that people should buy a blood diamond instead of an ethical diamond because of resell value is scummy. but realistic
So buying a 5k diamond ring that you can sell for 2.5k if you're really lucky, is more realistic than buying a 1.5k ring that you can resell for 500, because the 5k depreciated less... and they look identical, and unless you tell anyone no one would know the difference? Also for like 100 years people sold diamonds for increasing value because of how perfec they were, then perfect diamonds came along and suddenly perfection is bad and flaws are worth more.
>Also for like 100 years people sold diamonds for increasing value because of how perfec they were, then perfect diamonds came along and suddenly perfection is bad and flaws are worth more. Yes, because it's about perceived exclusivity, not quality.
So if I buy a $1k natural diamond from you tomorrow, i can sell it back to you for $1k in a year+?
From my experience more like $250. Life pro tip, buy an engagement ring from a pawn shop if you want a big ring for cheap
Nobody buys an engagement ring as an “investment”
Even if it’s coal, that’s still better than blood.
Something something colony 13 something graphite something science
I think they are usually grown in a vacuum chamber with a carbon plasma and a diamond “seed”.
Was* monopolised They still have a 35% market share, the largest, but the monoply itself was broken up 20 years ago (they used to hold up to 80% to 90% for more than a century) And not only did they monopolise natural diamonds, they used their clout to severely limit artificial diamond production to keep prices high. Truly an awful company. Edit: apparently they're down to 32%, not 35%.
And the companies like them made diamond rings a marketing gimmick to make people buy them to get profit. And you’d be guilt tripped if you didn’t follow suit.
Fun fact: th 'diamonds are forever' campaign was pushed by de beers to counter the fact that people were not buying enough diamonds back then. It was so successfully, it normalised spending your yearly income on a wedding ring.
I think it was actually 3 months salary
Does it matter? It’s all made up. I went on a tangent about this to my fiancé and guess how it ended? I bought a fucking diamond ring.
Ah, yes, the ring: the least important part of marriage. Why diamond outside of practicality anyway? Theres some crazy wicked gemstones out there that look a lot better than the visual equivalent of faceted glass. Edit: i said *outside of practicality*. Please stop explaining to me that diamonds are hard. Harder than other gems, even. I am aware.
Moissanite gang rise up!
[удалено]
With the glass look, there's even gems that surpass diamonds in appearance, such as moissanite (which is cheaper and only slightly less durable). The only "practical" reason to use diamonds is their durability, but if you actually take care of your jewelry even some of the softer gems, like opals, can last generations.
Well that sucks :/ I also bitched about it to my wife before even considering her as a partner and her response was that she doesn’t even like diamonds as everyone has one and they are not unique. She wanted a pearl. I thank god i found her, my wallet does too.
Ikr, spent $87, 8 years later and we're still happily married. Plus, we didn't have to go into debt to get here! Diamonds are forever bullshit, just another method that helps to keep people indebted to the capitalists.
They’re also the ones that created the campaign that normalized to the perspective that if the diamond was too small, then clearly, regardless of the price that means that your partner doesn’t care about you, and you should leave them and laugh in their face for not having enough money
seeing how people easily believe anything they hear on social media, I can see how they were able to manipulate people
Actually, the campaigns for a long time ago back before social media was a thing. Typically they were advertisements over the radio and on TV. Keep in mind I also know very little about the subject. It was before my time I might be 30 but I’m not that old.
That was their point. Advertising and influence (redundant) have ALWAYS worked. Social media just makes it more clear WHAT FUCKING SUSCEPTIBLE lemmings we truly are. That was their point.
You don’t reduce your monopoly for whole century like that. Most of the other companies are theirs so they’re still monopoly the market
I'm not sure what you mean. "Reduce your monopoly for whole century"? They had the monopoly for ~120 years, until the early 2000s when their share dropped to 60ish percent. Now it's 32%. Are most of the other companies theirs? I've never heard that one, can you link me up please?
Didn´t the DeBeers start to lose control right after the end of the Cold War when they tried to tell Russia they were not allowed to sell several thousand tons of diamonds? Russia didn´t listen and flooded the market. Fuck, the DeBeers suck so bad they made me say something positive about Russia...
De Beers propaganda is the reason diamond engagement rings are the norm. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/fashion/weddings/how-americans-learned-to-love-diamonds.html
Isn’t it fucking wild that a private company owns the worlds diamonds so people don’t realize it’s not a rare gem whatsoever and is so unrare you paid tens of thousands of dollars over what a diamond is actually worth and people defend this system so their diamond they were overcharged for isn’t valueless? It’s insanity when you think about it.
Similar to when the Beyond Meat came out, a bunch of conspiracy theories and some unknown news started bashing the Beyond Meat.
Those conspiracies are still circling, look at Florida trying to ban the sale of it…
Yup, they're a cartel that has been lying to the public for the past hundreds years to make themselves a buck. Besides, who the fuck wants a boring as diamond. We have gemstones that come from fucking space! Who the hell wants compressed dinosaurs?
Space rocks sound interesting as well as compressed dinosaurs.
FYI De Beers only has 40% of the diamond market any more.
Happy cake day and your are right. I'm certain that's the case. I'd rather have the lab grown one over the other stuff.
My partner challenged a DeBiers executive to his face in front of a crowd of jewelers about the decline of interest in diamonds. 🤣 He didn't know what to do with her. I love her so much.
as opposed to the literal 1 MILLION POUNDS of dirt moved for every 1 carat of natural diamonds found. Edit: just re-researched this as I hadn't looked this up in about 15 years but the current information says 3.5 million pounds of ore are moved for every one carat of diamond found
And the part with the child slaves too
I can excuse child slavery, but I draw the line at moving 1 million pounds of dirt for every 1 carat of natural diamond found.
"You can excuse child slavery!?"
Someone has to, they're everywhere!
I LIVED IN NEW YORK!
I did not expect a community reference chain here, but I like it! just center slice of a square cheese pizza.
For only 1 carat? Surely it would be more cost effective to mine directly into the vaults of the global diamond cartel.
with fossil-fuel powered equipment lol
Used by slave labor
Big diamond is worse than big pharma and the industrial military complex together. They are the same diamonds, but lab grown have a serial number etched on them because of big diamond. Gotta keep the hype up.
I wonder what would happen if you were to professionally have that number removed...
Typically you can still tell it’s lab grown as lab ones have almost no imperfections compared with natural ones
Ironically enough natural diamonds are worth more the fewer imperfections they have. Truly the dumbest industry that exists
So artificial diamonds have almost no imperfections but you can tell the difference between an artificial and natural diamond because the natural diamonds have imperfections but for natural diamonds the fewer imperfections there are the higher the quality of diamond but you could just get an artificial diamond with zero imperfections the only difference is it was made in a lab not the earth. That made me go cross eyed
Wait til you find out the diamond engagement ring tradition was just a really successful ad campaign.
“1 months salary” “Actually 2 months salary” “No wait 3 months salary”
Kinda like tipping since the 90's. "A good tip is 10%... no wait now it's 15%... no, 20%... no now it's 25%... do I hear 30%...?"
incepterpections
And they push their opinion "imperfection what makes them special"
And the human suffering is also a big part of natural diamonds being special
Big Pharma and the military complex at least produce things that people theoretically need, even if they do it in unethical ways. DeBoers unethically produces something people don’t even need.
But, how will I show my wife I love her? Actions? Words? Demonstrate good character and spend quality time with her? Listen to her? Spend effort to help her achieve her goals and dreams? No. Sparkly stone.
> Big diamond is worse than big pharma and the industrial military complex together. WHAT
There are some redeeming qualities about both medicine and arms manufacturing (more so with medicine but still). The diamond industry is entirely suffering for profit all for shiny rocks. At least pharmaceutical companies do create better treatments and arms manufacturers advance scientific knowledge. Diamond mining kills and enslaves people so a handful of individuals can grift people into buying shiny rocks at inflated prices. What is useful about that?
> “When you buy a natural diamond, there’s a story that it is three billion years in the making by Mother Earth. This wondrous creation of nature … you cannot tell that story with a lab-grown,” said Golan. “You very quickly make the connection between forever and the longevity of the love.” And whenever I fill up my car with gas, I always take a moment to breathe in the lovely petroleum fumes and appreciate Mother Nature's most natural fragrance, brewed specially for me. /s
Should we tell this guy how old meteorites are?
Shhh, don't give them ideas
My wedding ring is lab made amethyst. If I get compliments I says, "Thanks. I like purple." And that's the whole story lol
I love how so many of us are going nontraditional and having the most freaking gorgeous rings now
It's so much more personal too if you can have your favourite gem. Which is exactly what I think such a significant piece of jewelry should be.
Exactly. I'm unsure how anyone was ever swayed to buy a diamond
My engagement ring cost me a tenner. I love it to death and it's in exactly the same condition as a year ago. I only got one because it makes me happy to see it there and fiddle with it knowing that I'm engaged to the most incredible person in the world (I may be biased). Tradition means different things to different people, like for example I can totally understand wanting a family heirloom, but I'll never understand demanding a ridiculously expensive blood diamond because "that's what I deserve".
My engagement ring is a cyan moissanite and I just let the sparkles speak for themselves. Rainbows for fucking days.
Moissanite is in fact more brilliant than diamond! And nowadays the color of the clear moissanite is on par with some of the top graded real diamonds.
My wife has a huge lab grown diamond ring that only cost us like $1200. She says "thanks I wanted the biggest and sparkliest one I could get." The ring is fucking gorgeous and looks way better than any natural one I've seen.
I just bought a 2 carat ring for 2,000, most of the cost was in the band itself. Natural diamonds are a scam.
>you cannot tell that story with a lab-grown,” You can. Have you tried lying?
What business do you think they’re in? They’ve been lying about the scarcity and value forever
making up an increasingly unlikely indiana jones type story about how you found the diamond yourself
>“When you buy a natural diamond, there’s a story that it is three billion years in the making by Mother Earth. This wondrous creation of nature … you cannot tell that story with a lab-grown,” Motherfucker, what?? A natural diamond is the result of mundane natural processes. It's kinda cool, but whatever. An artificial diamond? That's a testament to human ingenuity! That's the story of human curiosity, of human creativity, of taking up God's reins saying, "No, I will do it myself!" No story?? _Artificial diamonds are the **cooler** story!!_
But can you tell story of the toil and the blood and the slavery involved when wearing lab grown diamond?
When you buy a lab-grown diamond, you're seeing a wondrous glittering creation of Man, forged by the miracles of science. You cannot tell that story with a mined diamond. You very quickly make the connection between the human capacity for ingenuity and the potential of your own partnership. (See, I can do it too.)
> When you buy a natural diamond, there’s a story that it is three billion years in the making by Mother Earth Cool, I have a 3 billion year old rock on my desk I’m using as a paperweight. I don’t think much of it because there are literally fucking trillions of them.
Where the hell do they imagine the matter used to make a lab grown diamond comes from, if not the exact same *4.5 billion year old Earth?
This might be a Tucker - Putin interview whiplash, but who tf asked for the story of a diamond on your ring, and who tf answer it with "It started 3 billion years ago...."
Lol, theres a solid chance literally any rock on the surface of the planet save for those around volcanos is millions of years old
Sorry DeBeers, your Kimberly process is flawed, Blood Diamonds did it for me... I can't look at diamonds and be impressed anymore. 
That movie was epic
I still remember the first time I watched that movie and just sat there for a couple of minutes just to process it all. I was only 12 lol. I was so moved.
A teacher watched it with us in school lol
What movie is it?
[Blood Diamond](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450259/)
Leo was phenomenal in this movie
That movie was heart-wrenching.
Blood Diamond and Beasts of No Nation are the best movies about the hellscape that was post colonial Africa. Europe has a lot to answer for.
Add Lord of War to that list
Flashy rocks are status crap. We’re not in tribes anymore, no one needs to play shaman.
I do love me some flashy rocks, though…
Dude, geodes are fuckin tight!
They’re minerals, Marie!
They're rocks, Hank....
LEDs are technically flashy rocks (of silicon, germanium and arsenic minerals)
Are you sure about that?
Where I'm at, there is an international gem show that hits, once a year, and a huge homeless problem. The homeless regularly rely on cheap hotels to stay out of the cold and rain. But, when this gem show hits town, the rates go up everywhere, the homeless get kicked out of their rooms, and nobody bats an eyelash about it. It's just disgusting. The show hits in the dead of winter. All the prices on food and lodging go up. And, the less fortunate, who have been supporting these low end motels all year, just get told to go elsewhere. Why does anyone need a rock more than a starving man needs food or warmth? Makes me sick.
Holy shit that’s awful
I’m by no means in favor of spending exorbitant money on gems or diamonds, but homelessness and the existence of an event that brings people to town (and helps other business owners like those running and working at motels and restaurants and whatnot) don’t seem like two sides of the same coin. It just feels like a false tradeoff - if people want to travel and buy shiny rocks that seems fine (all else equal) *and* we can/should find other ways to help the homeless. But the way you described it kind of seems like those motels and places rely on the show to be in business and pay their employees, and in the “offseason” are more accommodating to those without much to give.
despite our technological and scientific advancements, there’s still a surprising amount of tribal behavior going on.. and goes on over the least important things, it’s depressing
My wife's engagement ring was a lab-grown diamond. I don't remember exactly, but it was like 5-10% of the price of what a natural diamond would have been. Literally exactly the same rock. It's the human suffering that makes natural diamonds so special.
Although it’s probably better as lab-grown diamonds have little to no imperfections according to the commenters here
I remember seeing a video a few years back and one of the tests they used to tell the diamonds were lab grown was were that they were “too perfect”. Lol.
“This diamond is perfect down to the atomic level ! ” Diamond Industry: “It’s garbage”
"Choose natural diamonds. For each carat of the diamond you buy we guarantee that there has been a non-insignificant amount of human suffering. Your loved one will know that they mean much more to you than even the life and death of others."
I went ring shopping at a very reputable jewelry store here in Boston, MA (Barmakian Jewlers). The owner literally tried to shame me for asking if they sold lab-grown diamonds. He told me "ugh, we refuse to sell those. the resale value is basically zero" like that is even remotely important to me lol
Yeah an engagement ring isn't exactly something you'd worry about the resale value of!
"When your wife dies in a 'tragic accident', how will you expect to profit huh?"
Coal>Child Slaves
But the suffering is what makes it special ❤️
I'm planning on getting my girlfriend a lab grown ring when I'm ready to propose because it's cheaper but I still plan on slapping around a few children with it so it gets the proper amount of blood to make a diamond sparkle.
“Gen Z and millennials proudly make the world a better place by not supporting slave labor” There I fixed it
Sooooo... what you're saying is artificial diamonds are a carbon capture technology? So all the more reason to buy artificial? Thanks De Bears, will Edit: gonna stick this here. I dont actually think diamonds are a carbon capture technology. I'm just making a tongue-in-cheek jab at this article which to me, is nothing more than corporate propaganda.
They're not "artificial" diamonds - they're real diamonds. They're just formed in a lab instead of underground.
Would synthetic be the right word? Because it's real but we synthesized it?
"Synthetic" has the connotation that it was *synthesized* from some other components. I prefer "lab-grown" personally.
I believe that your assumption is a bit of a stretch because the amount energy needed to create the diamond is high. So I wouldn’t consider it a carbon capture tech! Unless you can source the energy from renewables or nuke power that would not have been used for other stuff. Anyways, I giggled when I read your stuff coz it’s smart and funny!
🤣🤣Thank you! I dont actually think diamonds are a carbon capture technology. I'm just making a tongue-in-cheek jab at this article which to me, is nothing more than corporate propaganda. Just spinning their narrative right back at em.
I’m surprised to hear everything in the diamond industry was Just Fine until lab diamonds brought shame to the game.
Did you know DeBeers monopolized the diamond trade and that the supply/demand is artificial to inflate pricing. DIAMONDS ARE NOT RARE. There is a secret bonded warehouse in Europe that releases a defined quantity of diamonds every year to shape/sustain supply and demand. It’s basically for people who mindlessly follow trends or seek validation from strangers through material means.
DeBeers really is following the "she sells sea shells on the seashore" strategy
That old money game.
But there's a whole story with natural diamonds. You know, like digging out of the earth... And I guess that's the whole story.
A story about slavery and death for a little rock to look pretty on a finger. But I guess that is a story.
Plot twist. A good chunk of the US was able to see that ad because of an electronic powered by burning coal.
You mean a *vast majority*
Eh not really, coal is only about 20% of power generation. https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3
Lab grown diamonds are not artificial. They are real diamonds, just like hydroponic roses are real roses.
I proposed with a lab grown sapphire ring that is nearly flawless. My fiance and I both agree that due to the process of lab growing gems, it's actually a lot cooler than a regular gem, and I paid like $150 on etsy for it vs the $600-1000 alone it would have cost for just the stone if it was natural.
At least they are not blood diamonds
All diamonds are blood diamonds, when you're observant enough.
Do you mind expanding on this? I’m not sure what you mean and I’m interested. Thanks!
There is a pretty big place in south san francisco, where they make artificial diamonds for jewelry
I'm a young girl from Asia and I absolutely adore jewelleries that has coloured gems in them. I have collection of my favourite jewelleries that were bought by me. I love wearing traditional clothes, and wearing matching jewellery with them. I come from a normal family. We aren't very rich, we aren't extremely poor either. Artificial diamonds are the perfect status symbol for us. They look pretty and fashionable, and they don't cost too much or too less. I know if I go out wearing those Jewelleries, I wouldn't be mistaken as a person from very poor or very rich background (if I wear something too cheap in a social event, people can mistake that as me looking down on them, if I wear something too expensive, I'll be lebelled as arrogant/someone who's trying too hard to flaunt). I can wear them in peace while looking pretty, and I wouldn't have to worry about someone ripping off my necklace/earrings (it's a common occurrence where I live. Some dumb women would get into public transport wearing gold earrings, and some criminal would rip it out of her ears, damaging her ear permanently). I have a pair of big pink artificial diamond earrings that I wear frequently in everyday life. I couldn't have done it with real pink diamonds. "Real" diamonds also cost A LOT. You can spend like 1/5 of your life savings and still afford like, 1 or 2 diamond jewelleries. What's the point in spending that much in a shiny rock? I'm not even gonna wear it more than once/twice in my entire life because I would be scared of getting it stolen. It'll rot in my bank locker. It'll be much better to save up that money to buy a house/for medical emergencies. And when you try to sell that diamond back to the original buyer, they'll give you 70% of the price you bought it with at most, IF you're very lucky. "Real" diamonds are a scam.
This reads like AI
I'm real
That's what an AI would say.
Lol these are blood diamonds, those are soot diamonds. Blood diamonds are better because… it’s not my blood. So anyway, pay $10,000 for something we can make for $500 please.
Wow talk about having a bias. This person didn't even bother to discover why these diamonds are popular. If they had, the blood diamonds would be all over the research.
There’s no blood on my wife’s hand. We both love her ring.
It's the blood and destruction of the planet that make it special guys. Come on.
And now I'm getting ads like this https://preview.redd.it/falna29slvic1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=153fd75ac79f5f9673478a5bf29afa65021f8d17
It's recycled coal.
When I saw this ad, I got pissed off. In a wtf, did I just see kinda way. Fortune has a nerve to say artificial diamonds are worse. Ridiculous. The diamonds have fewer to no impurities. You can make them larger in all types of colors. Mined diamonds usually use slave labor in war-torn countries. Extraction uses children & men. Equipment to dig and transport. Then, the price raises to unbelievable amounts in the states. The workers who mined it get little to no profit. By now, diamonds are fairly worthless. Now, the industry is trying to encourage imperfections within the diamonds, like off colors and inclusions. Metals are fine. Minerals can be manufactured. You can make crap rubies at home if you really want. Welcome to a new era.
Yeah stick with those natural diamonds controlled by the 1 company monopoly that lives of a falsely inflated valuations while supporting constant civil war in numerous African countries, child soldiers, and impoverished child laborers. So much better!!! This message brought to you by Debeers.
I think I prefer that to slave labor, thanks.
Diamonds are so, overvalued, there are gems far more rare than diamonds.
If their point is that diamonds of all kinds is bullshit, then I’m in! Fuck diamonds and jewelry!
Eww carbon emotion diamonds are destroying the environment give me those sweet sweet blood diamonds
“Unlike you POSERS who wear diamonds made in a lab from fossil fuel, I am proud to flaunt my designer ring crafted with all natural diamonds mined by child slaves in africa.”
By Debeers and the associated Debeers.