A solitaire's story

When her boyfriend proposed marriage, he did so with a Swarovski ring. It did not matter to Trisha Sharma (name changed) that it was not a glittering diamond or a precious gemstone; what was of import was the gesture. In fact, when the two married in 2012, Trisha treaded the unconventional path by opting for jewellery made entirely from non-mined diamonds.

"I have never bought a diamond or a precious stone and do not intend to either," says the 28-year-old wildlife biologist. "My wedding jewellery was my mother's recycled jewellery or made from lab-grown stones and it looked fabulous. People were unable to tell the difference."

Trisha is among the gradually growing tribe of consumers willing to spend their money on diamonds that are not sourced from the earth's deepest caverns. A March 2014 Frost & Sullivan survey of 1,200 consumers across six countries, including India, on perceptions about 'grown' diamonds found many takers for these stones. Nearly half, or 49 per cent of the 200 Indians surveyed, said they would be interested in buying 'manmade diamonds' — one of the many terminologies used for these stones; the others include non-mined diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, cultured diamonds, created diamonds, greenhouse diamonds, and the much-derided trade name, synthetics.
The increasing debate over ethical and conflict-free stones and issues of pricing are important considerations for many consumers opting for non-mined diamonds.

Birth of a stone
"Think of it like (you were) growing a plant," says Professor V.A. Juvekar while explaining the concept of 'manmade diamonds'. "You need a seed and a nurturing environment." Sitting in a corner office inside a chemical laboratory at IIT's Powai campus, the professor's lucid explanation seems simple enough for an eight-year-old to grasp. But when applied to the creation of the hardest known substance on the planet, it is anything but simple.

The "seed" that Juvekar is referring to are tiny specks of pure carbon. The "nurturing environment" would be fatal for humans; it can either be a temperature-controlled gas chamber or a large press experiencing temperatures as high as 1,500 degrees Celsius (iron melts at 1,535 degrees Celsius) and extremely high pressure. The resultant "plant" is, in fact, a stone — a non-mined diamond.

Growing diamonds, either by the chemical vapour deposition method or by high pressure-high temperature technique is technically challenging and complicated, says Vishal Mehta, CEO of IIa Technologies. The Singapore-based company's laboratory has mimicked a three-carat diamond for the luxury (read jewellery) market. "Depending on its size (carat), a diamond can take months to grow in a laboratory," informs Mehta.

If the concept of a non-mined diamond seems a bit of an oddity, it is not surprising. It is, after all, a counter-intuitive notion. For generations, we've learnt that a diamond is a sparkling stone, resulting from nature's forces toiling away for thousands of years.

In scientific terms, a diamond is a crystallised form of carbon — the hardest known natural substance on the planet. "Carbon in the upper layers of earth's mantle crystallises as diamond under high pressure and temperature (900-1300 degrees Celsius) conditions that exist at depths of 150-200 km," says geologist S.V. Satyanarayana.
Diamond 'parent' rocks are brought closer to the earth's surface during volcanic activity, resulting in 'diamond pipes' being formed. It is from these pipes that we mine diamonds.

What's in a name?
An overwhelming majority of diamonds are in reality imperfect stones, i.e. they contain nitrogen or metallic impurities, and are thus categorised as Type Ia or Type Ib diamonds. Near colourless and flawless diamonds – those which are without impurities and sans nitrogen and boron inclusions – are called Type IIa diamonds and are even more scarce. Of all of the earth's diamonds, just 2 per cent fall into this precious category. Picture the Kohinoor, a classic Type IIa diamond, which was once a rarefied possession of several lineages of royalty in India and is now a part of the British Crown jewels.

Rarity and the fact that the earth cannot incessantly yield diamonds is what makes buying diamonds an expensive proposition. "The value of a diamond is inextricably linked to the inspirational and unique narrative that lies behind every diamond, from its formation, to its history, to its emotional significance," says De Beers Group spokesperson Lynette Gould.

The De Beers Group started as a mining company in 1888. To it goes the credit of nurturing and stewarding the diamond trade for decades despite the critical viewpoint that it dominated the global industry as a monopolistic cartel. The group sells 34 per cent of the world's rough diamonds, says Gould.

And yet, the De Beers group isn't alien to the lure of non-mined diamonds. For more than 50 years, Element Six, in which the group has a majority stake, has been creating laboratory diamonds for use in industries ranging from aerospace and healthcare to electronics and oil and gas. "We believe synthetics have a number of exciting technical applications," offers Gould.

Much like Element Six, IIa Technologies and other companies that grow diamonds in laboratories use them for industrial applications. "We are focussed on expanding and supplying grown diamonds for industries such as precision engineering and electronics, where quality and consistency of diamonds is critical and cannot be fulfilled by mined diamonds," says IIa Technologies' Mehta. Nearly 70 per cent of his company's diamonds are used for hi-tech applications and a small proportion is supplied for jewellery.

This is where De Beers makes a clear distinction. "Synthetics do not have the same emotional value as diamonds," Gould says, referring to the differences between the two diamonds. "The physical attributes that diamond jewellery consumers are drawn to — the sparkle and beauty of diamonds — are accompanied by emotional associations of love and promise, prestige, mystique, tradition and a sense of the eternal. You cannot create 'forever' in a laboratory."

Not forever?
According to Gould, research shows that "people want diamonds to mark significant milestones, personal achievements and emotional moments for which synthetics will not suffice". The allure of a diamond then, thanks to cultural marketing and popular perception, is in its enigma.

Jewellery manufacturers adhere to this positioning. Neeshal Modi, CEO, diamond division, Firestar Diamond, the company behind the Nirav Modi and A.Jaffe brands of luxury diamond jewellery, says that people buy diamonds both for their unparalleled sparkle and their investment value. "Synthetic diamonds have neither the sparkle and fire of natural diamonds nor any intrinsic value," says Modi.

Challenging this deeply entrenched perception is Mike Asscher of the 160-year-old Royal Asscher group. The Amsterdam-based group's history is entwined with the diamond trade. In1902, Joseph Asscher designed what later came to be known and patented as the Asscher Cut — a diamond cut with a stepped, square pattern and cropped corners. Six years later, in February 1908, Joseph Asscher struck the first blade on the largest gem-quality diamond ever found — the 3,106.75 carat-Cullinan diamond. The blade broke. The next week, Joseph used a new set of tools and spliced the diamond with one tremendous blow. The group's fortunes were ravaged during World War II but subsequent generations have revived its fortunes and have thrived.

Today, Mike Asscher, the sixth generation diamontaire of the Asscher family, believes that non-mined, coloured diamonds hold immense promise. Asscher first came across a non-mined diamond in Antwerp in 2005. "When we first saw a non-mined diamond, we immediately wanted to know more about the product," says Asscher, vice president, Royal Asscher. "We'd rather sell diamonds mined or non-mined as a substitute, than have the clients go for other luxury products."

By 2013, Royal Asscher set up a separate company to retail luxury, non-mined diamond jewellery under the brand Rebel Chique, in the US, UK and the Netherlands. The company sources certified non-mined diamonds from Canada and the US and sells the jewellery with due transparency. While the response has been encouraging, educating the consumers has been difficult.

The only difference between the two kinds of diamonds, says Asscher, is the place of origin. That, and the price difference. The difference in the cost of diamond and non-mined diamond jewellery can be between 20-40 percent. In the case of a coloured stone, Asscher says, the difference can be up to 95 percent. "We see this (non-mined diamonds) as an opportunity instead of as a threat. The opportunity lies in the fact that we can now make fancy coloured diamonds available for a wide audience," he says. "The scarcity of roughs will eventually drive up the price even more and customers will probably find a substitute."

But are non-mined diamonds really that different from mined ones? Especially if non-mined diamond jewellery doesn't look, feel or appear to be any different from jewellery made from mined stones? "There should not be any difference as natural diamonds and non-mined diamonds have the same composition and more or less the same physical properties," reasons geologist Satyanarayana.

IIT's Juvekar is more direct. "For all practical purposes, there is no difference between the two. Both look identical and have the same sparkle," says the professor. "The only way to tell them apart is by taking them to a lab." (see box: diamond certification)

Asscher says non-mined diamonds will create their own place in the industry. "Eventually, the customer will dictate what we sell. In most cases, a first-time buyer will buy a mined diamond so the benefit (of non-mined diamond) might not be here today. But, in the long run, our industry will accept this product. Consumers, not the diamontaires, will dictate the market," says Asscher.

For a customer like Trisha, the choice is obvious. "Technically, a non-mined gemstone is one without the footprint of human and environmental destruction," she says. "For me, this is a no-brainer and justification enough."