They say diamonds are forever, but it's become crystal clear the diamond industry is changing.
ABC News’ Ines de La Cuetara reports on the world’s largest jeweler, Pandora, saying it will only sell lab-created diamonds, as the man-made gems become more popular.PARIS -- They say diamonds are forever, but it's become crystal clear the diamond industry is changing.
At Paris-based Diam Concept, a company that creates diamonds using the chemical vapor deposition method, founder Alix Gervel explained the process begins when a thin sheet of crystal, known as a diamond seed, is inserted into a reactor, where it's exposed to heat and a gas mixture.Lab-grown diamonds grow in a plasma reactor in the headquarters of the Diam-Concept company in Paris, Sept. 23, 2019.
Price is a big part of the appeal; according to some estimates, lab-grown diamonds with nearly identical grades to a natural one"With our system, the cost to produce them is actually higher, but because we don't have any intermediaries, we can sell them at a lower price," explained Gervel. "They care about the environment. They want a piece of jewelry they can look at and feel good about," she said."When a lab-created diamond is grown in the so-called CVD process using 100% renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions are less than 1/10 of emissions from a low-carbon diamond mine -- this includes all upstream emissions in the lab-created diamond value chain," Pandora spokesperson Johan Melchior wrote in a statement.
Those in favor of mining, such as the Natural Diamond Council, argue the industry"employs tens of millions of people around the world and their families and communities depend on the income and welfare that the natural diamond industry provides."