For De Beers, the group that used to control 99% of the diamond market worldwide till the turn of the 20th century, 2004 marked a watershed.
Two companies, Apollo Diamonds (http://www.apollodiamond.com)and Gemesis (http://www.gemesis.com), both headquartered in the US, announced that they would be selling synthetic diamonds. Apollo has since ceased to exist, leaving Gemesis as the biggest in the industry. Unlike American diamonds (made of plastic) or cubic zirconium, these synthetic diamonds are just like the ones mined from earth.
Today, companies that make them refer to the ‘raw’ diamonds sold by De Beers and independent miners as ‘earth-mined diamonds’, while they call their own diamonds ‘lab-grown diamonds’ or ‘cultured diamonds’. This has added to De Beers’ woes. Thanks to Australia (specifically, Argyle Diamonds), Russia and independent mines in South Africa, De Beers’ share of the diamond market has slipped to just around 40%.And the challenge posed by lab-grown-diamond companies is that they call the earth-mined diamonds ecologically unacceptable: mines scar the earth, and earth-mined diamonds are ‘blood diamonds’, given the exploitation of both labour and trade.
In contrast, lab-grown diamonds are purer, less flawed (hence free of the fear of flaws that are considered to be inauspicious), and ecologically acceptable. In fact, market sources say that De Beers, too, has begun working on its own lab-grown-diamond facility, to prepare itself against this innovation that is likely to sweep the entire industry some day.
So how are diamonds made? As the Wired magazine put it in 2003, “Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure — say, 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres — and it will crystallise into the hardest material known.
“Those were the conditions that first forged diamonds deep in Earth’s mantle 3.3 billion years ago. Replicating that environment in a lab isn’t easy, but that hasn’t kept dreamers from trying.
“Since the mid-19th century, dozens of these modern alchemists have been injured in accidents and explosions while attempting to manufacture diamonds.”
According to Wired (industry sources refuse to confirm or deny this figure), thanks to Gemesis, the cost of making lab-grown diamonds could be around $5 a carat, compared to $13,000 for an earth-mined diamond.
Today, Gemesis has the largest capacity for producing several thousands of carats of cultured diamonds a year.Industry sources claim lab-grown diamonds to account for sales of over $200 million (compared with around $12 billion of earth-mined diamonds).
But it is growing at over 100% year-on-year, and could grow faster in a couple of years.
In fact, as Wired put it, “Not only is [the diamond] the hardest substance known, it also has the highest thermal conductivity - tremendous heat can pass through it without causing damage.”
Today’s speedy microprocessors run hot — at upwards of 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
They can’t go much faster without failing. Diamond microchips, on the other hand, could handle much higher temperatures, allowing them to run at speeds that would liquefy ordinary silicon.
But manufacturers have been loath even to consider using the precious material, because it has never been possible to produce large diamond wafers affordably.
With the arrival of Gemesis, all that could change. Both start-ups plan to use the diamond jewellery business to finance their attempt to reshape the semiconducting world. Synthetic diamonds have implications for India as well: much of the cutting and polishing activity is outsourced to Indian units.
RN Bhaskar got an opportunity to speak with Stephen Lux, chief executive of Gemesis for the past six years. Prior, Lux was a senior executive for the precious metals company, Engelhard Corp.His formal education included BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering.
Predictably, Lux refuses to talk numbers. But his insights are sharp and the implications tremendous.
What makes Gemesis special and different from other diamond companies?
Gemesis is the only company which has commercially launched both rare colourless and rare yellow fancy-coloured diamonds. We believe this is the future of the industry. At the moment, the industry is caught in quite a few questionable moral issues like ‘blood diamonds’. It is unable to convincingly show the world that it seriously means business and is willing to show the origin of all its diamonds. There is a large base of customers in the world, especially in the US, that wants environment-friendly diamonds as well as conflict-free diamonds. Not only does Gemesis provide these beautiful diamonds, it also guarantees the world the moral aspects they care about.
The best description about our diamonds can be seen from one of our distributors’ website (http://www.robbinsbrothers.com/Gemesis-Diamond.ring) where it says that Robbins Brothers is proud to be to be able to offer lab-created eco-friendly ‘real’ diamonds to you.
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