February 2022 | Lab Grown Magazine

February 2022 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 22 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | February 2022 23 I were a betting man, my money would be on LGD rapper teeth. Back to the former banker turned ‘diamonaire,’ as his wife puts it, he remained mostly silent. Or maybe he’s asleep, it’s hard to tell. I was about to end our web call when the words “dinner’s ready” did it for me. I find many businessmen will suddenly stop a call in mid-sentence if the word “dinner” is uttered. No problem, I had bigger fish to fry and you’re about to meet them. You won’t print that Enter the semi-retired, no holds barred, ‘I’ve been selling diamonds since I was in tenth grade’ executive. I find these well-heeled individuals to be extreme- ly well read in all things business and diamonds, but never a gemologist or an appraiser. These execs don’t seem to roll-up their sleeves, but they can tie one heck of bow tie when a formal jewelry event beckons. Typically, I avoid interviews with these personal- ity types as they don’t often make for great quotes. Regardless, this specific senior viewpoint had to be covered.This gentleman holds significant stakes with some the largest diamond mines. It’s paramount to properly frame this interview as it may be a strong reason why the diamond verses diamond value debate continues. Spoiler alert: The term ‘synthetic’ will be replacing LGDs for this section. Forget the fact the world- wide consumer definition for the adjective ‘synthetic’ mirrors words like ‘fake,’ ‘faux,’ or ‘imitation.’ We’ll also have to temporarily dismiss the FTC Jewelry Guidelines and U.S. Federal law suspending the word ‘synthetic’ surrounding LGD marketing and adver- tising-speak. It’s comical how some senior diamond pros con- vince themselves ‘synthetic’ is not only appropriate to overuse , but it would appear they think the term is welcomed. It’s not. Unless we’re reviewing a science or chemistry project, writing a white paper, or being inter- viewed for a piece in Nature , I will ask my guest to refrain from replacing ‘man-made’ or ‘lab-grown’ with ‘synthetic.’ Since I’ve painted such a col- orful portrait of this executive, we’ll just call him Mr. X from company Z. What is important is his message. We must respect the decades of diamond exper- tise and a voice of self-proclaimed reason you’re about to experience. “Stan,” He insisted on calling me ‘Stan’. “So, Stan, purely on the mining side - none of this synthetic (en- ter expletive of choice) stuff. Natural diamonds are rare. Millions, sometimes billions of years old. Rare is valuable. Extracted from diamond mines and some of those mines have closed, you know. And some have reopened, I think to myself. “The rarer something is, the more it’s worth! But you won’t you print that, will ya?” “I certainly will,” I replied and proceeded with a few questions directed at Mr. X’s natural diamond ‘rarity’ claim affecting the worth and value of mined stones. I asked if it wouldn’t be more accurate to state new- ly mined diamonds are becoming scarce? After all, I think everyone knows someone who owns at least one natural diamond, so stating ‘natural diamonds are rare,’ isn’t truly correct, right? “Wrong!” he exclaimed. OK, no more closed-ended questions for this inter- view. Staying on mines, I enquired, “How many new mines have been opened in the last decade? Like Gah- cho Kué, one of the world’s largest diamond mines in Canada.” “Yes,” he quickly noted, “but that was 2016 – let’s stay current.” I then asked about Alrosa prospecting and exploring in Angola and Botswana, or, Lucara’s expansion of their Karowe underground diamond mine in 2020. “No comment,” he stated. I asked about South Africa’s Minister of Mining an- nouncing the opening of a diamond mine in August last year in Mokhotlong. Didn’t they say there are three new mines opening soon, plus the reopening of the Liqhobong Mine back in September of 2021? “Natural diamonds are investment stones -synthetics are a dime a dozen and not worthy of any investment,” he stated. So I asked his thoughts on DeBeers comb- ing the ocean beds for natural diamonds to produce millions of carats, some in exceptional fancy varieties. “Yep, that’s happening,” he said. His thoughts on Al- rosa’s diamond sales skyrocketing to $4.2B in 2021- 50% over 2020? “You should speak to Alrosa on that, but what I will say is it proves we (diamond mining companies and investors) are in complete Covid re- covery. Natural diamonds are a solid financial invest- ment. You know you can trade with natural diamonds now- can’t do that with the synthetics,” he added. The gentleman was referring to investment options such as the new, non-fungible token (NFT) diamond coin or D’Coin, not to be confused with Dcoin Trade Group, even though the NFT is moving into a “di- amond traders online market.” When asked what Janua y 2022 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 4 Left: A compli- cated and con- fusing business model surround the D’Coin, a diamond-based NFT turned di- amond-valued i n t e r na t i ona l exchange Right: IGI and Diamond Source made history with the world’s first dia- mond commod- ity coin. Photos: D’Coin and Di- amond Source, respectively.