GIA lab grown grading report

Namibia bemoans popularity of lab-grown diamonds on global market

Namibia is one of Africa’s top five diamond exporters, right behind Angola, Botswana, and South Africa. In 2022, the country exported more than $940 million worth of diamonds.

The world’s demand for natural diamonds has bounced back from a slump during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Namibia’s largest marine dining company, Debmarine, reporting a sales increase of 83% in 2022 from the previous year.

Still, Debmarine CEO Willy Mertens is worried about competition from synthetic diamonds, sector of the business that could cost many Namibians their jobs.

Though trained jewelers can tell the difference between lab-grown and natural diamonds, there’s nothing obvious to distinguish lab-grown diamonds from natural ones.

The Modern Mining publication recently said that in 2022, lab-grown diamond jewelry surpassed 10% of the market of global jewelry sales for the first time. The publication said artificial diamond sales are forecast to continue growing at an annual double-digit percentage rate in coming years.

Namibia, where workers extracted 2.1 million carats in diamonds in 2022, is embarking on a campaign to tout natural diamonds as environmentally sound and holding greater value for the money.

“We’ve seen in the past couple of years that lab-grown diamonds, or synthetics as you call them, have sort of infiltrated the natural diamond market,” said Mertens. ” … people were first marketing them as real diamonds and we’ve done a lot of work around trying to differentiate them.”

One of the challenges of marketing Namibian natural diamonds is the environmental impact that diamonds have on the landscape.

Mertens said Debmarine invests a significant amount of its profits into environmental rehabilitation and restoration of landscapes and the seabed damaged by mining.

“The restoration of the seabed actually happens naturally as the waves move,” Mertens said. “So what we are doing is that we are monitoring that, and what we do is we mine out a specific area and we leave an area next to it vacant, and over time we monitor how the area where we have recovered diamonds looks like compared to the one that was not touched and we’ve seen that it takes about three to 10 years maximum for that to completely restore. By completely restoring, mean about 70% of the organisms have returned to that place. On the land, it is sand that we are moving and what we do now is that we are using that same sand to keep the sea walls in tact.”

Mertens recently paid a courtesy call on Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba, to introduce the De Beers global ambassador for natural diamonds, Hollywood actor Lupita Nyong’o, and talk to the president about challenges facing Namibia’s diamond industry.

De Beers Natural Diamonds Global Ambassador Lupita Nyong’o, left, Namibia President Nangolo Mbumba, center, and Debmarine CEO Willy Mertens in Windhoek, Namibia, July 19, 2024. (Vitalio Angula/VOA)
De Beers Natural Diamonds Global Ambassador Lupita Nyong’o, left, Namibia President Nangolo Mbumba, center, and Debmarine CEO Willy Mertens in Windhoek, Namibia, July 19, 2024. (Vitalio Angula/VOA)
President Mbumba lamented a proposal for the Kimberley process — the process meant to screen out so-called “conflict diamonds” from entering the international market — to begin certifying all diamonds in Antwerp, Belgium.

The Group of Seven largest economies said that is an effort to prevent Russian diamonds from being sold abroad.

Mbumba said the measure would hurt African diamond producers.

“Recently, the decision was made by the G7 countries to route all rough and polished diamonds destined for G7 countries via Belgium,” said Mbumba. “This decision poses a serious risk and threat to our economies, especially the economies of Angola, Botswana and Namibia by increasing the cost as well as curtailing freedom of trade for our countries’ products.”

Namibia’s president said he and his counterparts from Angola and Botswana have written a letter to the G7 to ask them to halt their plans.

Source: voanews

Falling prices, low consumer trust, imports issues for lab-grown diamond: GTRI

New Delhi: India’s lab-grown diamond industry is facing challenges such as significant fall in prices, eroding consumer interest and competition from imports, think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said Sunday, adding said that though India faces the issue of production overcapacity, it continues to import in large amounts and this issue needs deeper investigation.

To address these challenges, the government needs to take certain steps such as setting clear and consistent rules to standardize quality, certification, and market practices; issuing a Quality Control Order to check quality of imports; and investment in research and development to improve production processes, reduce costs, and enhance the quality of lab-grown diamonds.

As per the report, India’s lab-grown diamond industry is facing a major challenge, with prices falling by 65% in the past year to Rs 20,000 per carat from Rs 60,000 due to local overproduction and oversupply from abroad, which points to problems like overproduction, high imports, and lack of regulation. The number of units producing lab-grown diamonds in India has increased to 10,000 units, leading to over supply and tougher competition.

The industry lacks clear regulations checking such practices, making it hard to ensure quality. Lack of proper certification, and low trust market operations could slow down the industry’s growth, according to GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava.

He added that 98% of India’s imports of rough lab-grown diamonds come from Hong Kong (63.7% or $728.2 million) and the UAE (28.5% or $326 million).

In FY24, India imported rough lab-grown diamonds worth $1.14 billion and exported cut and polished ones worth $1.3 billion.

Natural diamonds cost around Rs 3.5 lakh per carat and this price drop is making it difficult for manufacturers to repay loans taken for purchasing lab-grown diamond making machines, putting them under financial strain, GTRI said.

Source: economictimes.india

Swarovski Celebrates Launch of ‘Swarovski Created Diamonds’

Swarovski celebrated the launch of Swarovski Created Diamonds with an event held at the new Chadstone store in Melbourne, Victoria. VIP guests and friends of the House includingMaria Thatill, Maxine Wylde, Jessie Murphy, Charlene Davies and Tayla Broad enjoyed a day filled with joyful extravagance which included a Swarovski Created Diamonds styling session.

The Swarovski Created Diamonds collection includes ‘Galaxy’, the latest range by Global Creative Director Giovanna Engelbert, which takes its inspiration from the birth of the cosmos. The 19-piece collection includes necklaces, rings, earrings, and bracelets in a dazzling array of diamond cuts, expertly crafted to capture and transform the light. For its launch in the Chadstone store, Galaxy Collection showpieces shone in a special display, reflecting Engelbert’s cosmic inspiration.

Giovanna Engelbert commented: “The confluence of diamonds, Swarovski’s heritage, and my creative vision has culminated in a collection that embraces the birth of new dimensions for the universe of Swarovski. The endeavor of meticulously creating diamonds to reflect light in mesmerising ways was remarkable, and what truly excites me is the accessibility to this beauty, thereby elevating the possibilities of customers’ creativity in their self-expression.”

Crafted with Swarovski’s exquisitely cut laboratory grown diamonds, which are identical to mined diamonds in every way but origin, Swarovski Created Diamonds fine jewellery collections showcase the brand’s mastery of light and savoir-faire. They are created with 100% renewable energy and recycled gold and silver, and only diamonds of the highest quality are used, with each stone certified by the International Gemological Institute (IGI) according to the 4Cs of diamond quality – cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight.

With its long heritage of precision cutting, innovation, and artistry since 1895, entry into the fine jewellery market is a natural evolution for the 129-year-old luxury brand. Swarovski Created Diamonds collections will be rolled out in flagship stores and key markets globally.

Source: Newshub

Fraudster Switches $2,000 Lab Grown for $545,000 Natural Diamond

Police in Surat, India, are investigating an alleged switch, in which a “buyer” replaced a 10.08-carat natural diamond, valued at $545,000, with a near-worthless lab grown replica.

The “buyer” examined the heart-shaped D / VVS2 stone and its GIA certificate, agreed terms and put down a $12,000 down payment to secure the purchase.

He left, saying he needed to withdraw money – and has not been seen since.

The owner of the diamond soon realized he’d been left with a lab grown replica of identical shape, color and weight, but worth less than $2,000.

Police say they are pursuing the “buyer” and at least two accomplices, according to a report in the Economic Times.

Source: IDEX

Lab Grown Diamonds Market Projected to Hit $59.5 Bn by 2032 with Strongest Growth in Asia Pacific Region

According to Vantage Market Research the Global Lab Grown Diamonds Market Size is expected to reach a value of USD 27.2 Billion in 2023. The Lab Grown Diamonds Market is projected to showcase a CAGR of 9.1% from 2024 to 2032 and is estimated to be valued at USD 59.5 Billion by 2032.

The lab-grown diamonds market has emerged as a formidable force within the diamond industry, captivating consumers with its ethical and sustainable approach to creating stunning gemstones. Unlike mined diamonds, which are extracted from the earth through an environmentally impactful process, lab-grown diamonds are meticulously crafted in controlled laboratory environments.

This innovative technology replicates the natural diamond formation process, resulting in stones with the same physical, chemical, and optical properties as their mined counterparts. The burgeoning lab-grown diamond market is fueled by a confluence of factors, including rising environmental consciousness, evolving consumer preferences, technological advancements, and increasing disposable incomes.

Young Shoppers Take Shine to Lab-Grown Diamonds

Pandora’s abandonment of mined diamonds has apparently not hindered its standing with younger consumers.

Speaking to the Financial Times (FT) Tuesday (May 7), Alexander Lacik, CEO of the mass-market jeweler, said younger buyers helped fuel a boom in lab-grown stones that had led to a decline in sales of mined diamonds, and helped the company best its luxury rivals.

Lab-grown diamonds are opening up the industry to new consumers, he said, as these stones are usually about a third of the cost of the alternative.

“People are discovering that a diamond is a diamond. It’s a different value proposition, and people are voting with their wallets,” Lacik told the FT. “Older customers are more wedded to mined diamonds. Younger ones are more open to lab-grown.”

The report notes that Pandora became the first major jeweler to move to a lab-grown-diamond-only strategy in 2021 as it pushed to expand its offerings beyond the charm bracelets and necklaces for which it had been known.

The company nearly doubled its sales of lab-grown diamonds in the first quarter, increasing revenue by 87%, the FT said.

Gen Z’s embrace of lab-grown diamonds makes sense in light of PYMNTS Intelligence research showing that this age group — more so than other younger consumers — is most likely more likely to point to buying an expensive retail product as their main financial goal than to mention paying for an upcoming event or show.

“In fact, consumers in this group are seven times as likely to prioritize the former as the latter,” PYMNTS wrote last month.

By contrast, millennial and bridge millennial consumers were the most likely to list paying for an event or show as their top goal.

“By 2030, barely five years from now, Gen Z will represent a third of the workforce. Their disposable income is projected to increase by sevenfold and their spending by sixfold as their incomes rise and they begin to benefit from the $90 trillion transfer of wealth headed their way from parents and grandparents,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote recently.

“For that reason, Gen Z is the generation that all businesses are courting — they are their future workers, customers, business partners and investors.”

At the same time, this age group is also struggling to make ends meet, with 59% of Gen Z consumers living paycheck to paycheck, despite half of them not paying rent or mortgage.

“With such a financial cushion, the question remains as to why these young adults struggle to live within their means,” PYMNTS wrote last month. “One answer: Gen Z consumers cite splurging on nonessential items as a top reason for their financial lifestyle.”

Source: pymnts.com

AGTA Bans Lab-Grown Diamonds, Gemstones at GemFair

The American Gem Trade Association announced that, starting at Tucson next year, exhibitors will not be allowed to sell lab-grown diamonds or colored gemstones at the AGTA GemFair.

National Jeweler received a news release on AGTA’s decision via email Wednesday morning. The release also was posted on the AGTA website, though it had been removed by Wednesday evening.

AGTA CEO John W. Ford Sr. said the news release was “pulled by error,” and would be reposted today.

According to the release, AGTA’s new rule bans the display of loose gemstones or jewelry “comprising non-natural gemstones, ones that are man-made, synthetic, or lab grown.”

AGTA said its dealers can still sell lab-grown gems if they are disclosed, but only natural gems can be made available for purchase at GemFair.

The association said it enacted the ban to “thwart potential confusion,” confusion it sees happening in the lab-grown diamond industry and fears will affect the colored gemstone industry, even though lab-grown colored stones have been around for more than a century.

When asked what led to the belief that confusion was occurring, or could occur, in the colored gemstone market, Ford said in an email to National Jeweler, “Look no further than the chaos created by synthetics in the diamond industry … Our action is also in response to considerable concerns voiced by AGTA membership in relation to the adverse effects that synthetics could also potentially cause in the colored gemstone industry.”

While the AGTA’s decision has made headlines, it does not seem poised to have a big impact on AGTA GemFair exhibitors, few of whom sell lab-grown gemstones anyway.

In his email, Ford said out of the 260 exhibitors of loose or set gemstones at the 2024 AGTA GemFair Tucson, only two list that they sell synthetic gemstones in the AGTA Source Directory.

“Since sending out over (260) 2025 AGTA GemFair Tucson renewals, we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from the vast majority of our exhibitors, greatly outweighing any negative responses,” he said.

UK synthetic diamond firm told ads cannot describe diamonds as ‘real’

Ads for synthetic diamond jewellery have been banned after the UK company behind them, Skydiamond, did not make it clear they were not real.

Even though the strapline of the newspaper advert was the “world’s first and only diamond made entirely from the sky” and a social media ad said “love is… a diamond gift made from the sky”, there were complaints from the National Diamond Association.

The advertising regulator upheld the complaints and concluded that the ads were misleading and said they could not appear again in the same form, including on the company’s website without, better explanation.

Skydiamond, the trading name for The Sky Mining Company Ltd, was told by the Advertising Standards Authority not to use the terms “diamonds”, “diamonds made entirely from the sky” and “Skydiamond”, and not to describe its synthetic products “without a clear and prominent qualifier”.

The firm was told by the ASA that it must use terms such as ‘synthetic’, ‘laboratory-grown’ or ‘laboratory-created’, “or another way of clearly and prominently conveying the same meaning to consumers” and were not to use the claim “real diamonds” to describe synthetic diamonds.

Sky Mining said both the ads and extensive information and graphics on its website set out that their diamonds were manufactured in a laboratory, with detailed information on the production process on its website.

The company said the very brand was built on the premise that their diamonds did not come from the earth and do not have the negative environmental impacts associated with diamond mining, with all components required sourced from the sky: atmospheric carbon dioxide (as a source of carbon), rainwater (as a source of hydrogen) and renewable energy from solar and wind power.

As explained on the company’s website, Skydiamonds are made from carbon dioxide and hydrogen extracted and produced using proven industrial processes and combined to form methane in a biological process, with methane fed into chemical vapour deposition machines in which diamonds developed at a high temperature over 14 days.

It says for every carat of Skydiamond produced, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 99.79% compared to mined diamonds, and that compared to growing diamonds in a laboratory, mined diamonds produce 4,383 times more waste, use 2.14 times the energy and 6.8 times as much water.

The ASA acknowledged that further information on the Sky Mining manufacturing process appeared on About Us pages of the website among other pages.

“However, in the absence of a clearly worded and prominent qualification such as ‘synthetic’, ‘laboratory-created’ or ‘laboratory-grown’, or another way of clearly and prominently communicating the same meaning, we considered it was still ambiguous as to whether the diamonds were synthetic or not,” the regulator said.

Source: proactiveinvestors

GIA Expands Fraud Checks to All Labs

GIA says it has expanded its new verification service – aimed at combating “cloned diamond” fraud – to all its labs.

The Report Confirmation Service was launched last month in New York to identify lab growns being submitted for regrading as natural diamonds.

GIA says the service is now available at all locations. It will accept walk-in and courier submissions, will turn around loose diamonds in as little as 15 minutes, and will, initially, make no charge.

The service is available for GIA-graded diamonds with and without inscriptions. An original GIA cert is helpful but not essential.

An increasing number of lab growns are being fraudulently submitted for re-grading. They are cut to match the specifications of natural diamonds that have already been graded and inscribed with either with a GIA number (genuine or fake).

“Combatting this fraud is vital to protecting the public and ensuring their confidence in gems and jewelry – this is GIA’s mission,” said GIA president and CEO Susan Jacques.

Source: IDEX

Are Lab-grown Diamonds Sustainable?

Human-made diamonds come with an appealing claim: Manufacturers say the stones are produced ethically using renewable energy. But many of the products do not meet that claim or their producers do not confirm the electricity sources they use. And, laboratory diamonds require a lot of electricity to produce.

In the United States, lab-grown diamond sales increased 16 percent in 2023 from 2022, says Edahn Golan, an industry expert. The stones cost much less than natural diamonds.

Bario Neal is a jewelry store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It uses lab diamonds. All of the stones are either made with renewable energy or neutral use of energy through the carbon credit system. Credits pay for activities like planting trees, which capture carbon.

Social media posts show Millennials and Generation Zs proudly explaining the purchase of their lab-grown diamonds for sustainability and ethical reasons. But the sustainability of production is questionable. A high number of manufacturers are not transparent, or open, about their operations.

Many of the manufacturers are in India, where about 75 percent of electricity comes from burning coal. The companies use words like “sustainable” and “environmentally-friendly” on their websites. But they do not release reports on the environmental effects of their operations.

Cupid Diamonds, for example, says on its website that it produces diamonds in “an environmentally friendly manner.” But it did not answer questions about the sustainability of its operations.

Solar energy is quickly expanding in India and there are some companies, such as Greenlab Diamonds, that use renewables in their manufacturing processes.

China is the other major country producing laboratory diamonds. The largest makers did not return requests for comment. They also did not release details about their electricity source.

More than half of China’s electricity came from coal in 2023.

Paul Zimnisky is a diamond industry expert. He said few companies are honest about their supply chains and their use of renewable energy.

Zimnisky said a lot of companies claim to make an “environmentally-friendly product when they aren’t really doing anything that’s environmentally friendly.”

How it is made

Lab diamonds have been in production around seventy years. Producers treat carbon to high pressure and high temperature. The idea is to copy the natural conditions that form diamonds underground. But, nature spends at least one billion years to make a diamond. Lab diamonds are complete in a few weeks.

In the past, the stones were used mostly in industries like stone cutting, mining and dentistry tools.

Over time the laboratories, or foundries, have gotten better at making stones. Production costs have dropped as technology improves.

Companies now can manufacture as many stones as they want and choose their size and quality.

Diamonds, whether lab-grown or natural, are chemically identical and entirely made out of carbon. Experts can identify between the two using lasers to examine their atomic structures.

Marketing battle

The lab diamond is competing in the same market as natural stones. Worldwide, lab-grown diamonds are now 5 to 6 percent of that market. And, the public battle for customers has begun.

The natural diamond industry and some experts argue that lab-grown diamonds will not hold value over time.

Zimnisky predicts that natural diamonds will continue to sell in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for engagement rings.

And the human-made stone?

“Five to ten years into the future, I think there’s going to be very few customers that are willing to spend thousands of dollars for a lab diamond,” he said.

Page Neal said she co-founded Bario Neal in 2008 to “create jewelry of lasting value that would have a positive impact on people and the planet.”

She added: “We want to only work with materials that we feel like our clients would be proud to own.”

I’m Dan Novak.

Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press.