The lab-grown and mining industries may even be pushing one another to become more transparent and ethical.
Long before streetwear brands like Supreme popularized a business model built on limited-edition drops, the diamond industry used scarcity to drive up the desirability and perceived value of diamonds. There have always been a finite number of these sparkling chunks of carbon in the earth, making them feel all the more special.
However, in the past few years, technology has evolved to the point that those same sparkling hunks of carbon can be grown in labs, where scientists have managed to recreate the environment in which diamonds were formed in the earth.
And the increasing availability of lab-grown diamonds is fueling widespread change across the industry, with a big influx of jewelry brands using them (and often branding them as a more ethical and sustainable alternative) and at-times-aggressive opposition from proponents of mined jewels. Those on both sides of the lab grown vs. mined debate are often impassioned in their points of view.
But first: What exactly is a lab-grown diamond? First of all, they aren’t “fake.” Like a mined one, a lab-grown diamond is a tetrahedral crystal of carbon. Despite being grown in a lab, of which there are several across the U.S. and abroad in China, Israel, Singapore, India and beyond, they are chemically and physically identical to a mined diamond.
“It’s like getting ice from your freezer versus getting it from a glacier,” explains Anna-Mieke Anderson, founder of OG lab-grown diamond company Miadonna. “It doesn’t matter the origin, they are still chemically, physically and optically identical.”
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