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https://labgrownmagazine.com/Issues/August2020/
Still Slow, But…
Despite cautious re-openings in much of the
country, the jewelry industry is still in the doldrums.
And, the lab-grown sector is no exception.
The coronavirus will sadly take its toll, but we
must have confidence that the industry will prove
its resilience in the end and that the lab-grown sector
will come out sparkling.
Before the virus, we saw growing acceptance of
lab-grown diamonds by consumers for engagement
rings and bridal bands, with wedding jewelry sales
accounting for 87% of LGD sales in terms of value
as of April 2020, according to diamond industry
expert Edahn Golan. He notes, too, that consumers
hurt financially by the lockdown who want to purchase
a diamond may look for a lower-cost LGD
in the size and color they want. This is a glimmer
of good news.
As part of remaining optimistic in these trying
times, we cannot over-stress the importance of
having good digital marketing and communication
and the role that e-commerce plays now and in the
future. This was already growing before the pandemic
and will be even more critical as we approach
the new normal phase of business going forward.
While sales may be down, lab-grown diamonds
continue to be talked about and are making news.
De Beers’ Lightbox, recently came out with a pair
of 1-carat LGD stud earrings for $1800, twice the
price of its earlier 1-carat offerings. It makes one
wonder if this is the start of a larger foray into jewelry.
The brand also announced that it would be
selling through retailers, i.e. Reeds Jewelers and
others. And, despite not offering grading reports
in the beginning, Lightbox now provides limited
reports, with mininum specifications.
Notably for the lab-grown sector, Gemworld is
publishing the Lab Grown Diamond Price Index
in coordination with lgdex.org, a new trading platform
for LGDs started by Jerry Ehrenwald, former
director of IGI Laboratory in New York. We’ll
have more on that in the future.
The feature article in this issue takes a look at
newsworthy happenings in the LGD sector that
have not really made the headlines. From new discoveries
and techniques that can create tiny LGDs
in a mere second to the world’s largest LGD,
weighing in at 155 carats, the article focuses on
research in the lab-grown sector as well as other
aspects of the LGD saga that are of interest to
those in our industry. It’s a very interesting read.
Until next time, please stay safe.
Zev
A
MATTER
OF SIZE
By Dan Scott
From “instant diamonds” to record-breaking
carat weights, with lab-grown
diamonds, bigger is better.
Although lab-grown diamonds remain
top-of-mind for many people in the
jewelry industry as well as in other sectors, we
haven’t seen any headline news of late. It’s as
if the LGD industry placed hot news on the
back burner, or simply didn’t have any news
considered large enough to warrant headline
status.
Yet, this article takes a look at some very
interesting news that is worth mentioning. It’s
a story about size: size from an exceptionally
large carat weight category; size in terms of
the significance of a news story; and size in
the sense of the media presence and scope
surrounding a story. Size doesn’t just simply
matter; it is essential and must be as large
and consistent as possible when delivering a
message when it comes to LGDs.
As the saying goes, “knowledge is power.”
Several major and very recent industry
milestones are presented in this article to
embolden you with news you can use.
Add the Letter “S” to the Word “New”
New always makes the news. Be it an
innovative diamond-growing process or a
previously unheard-of high-carat weight
introduction, the magnitude of the message
must be aligned with the delivery of such.
When major news isn’t properly announced,
it remains silent or is forgotten; it can stifle
the expansion of a high-growth industry by
simply staying small. Luckily, the reverse is
true when newsworthy news is communicated
on a large scale.
Consider what you are about to read here
as a positive reminder that some LGD
professionals are working under the radar
while achieving over-the-moon results. If
those results remain in the dark, only small
clusters of industry professionals may benefit.
Shining a spotlight on news that matters often
reveals newfound business opportunities to
help you grow to sizeable success. A sliver of a diamond is required for the seed to build upon itself in order
to grow a lab-grown diamond. (Photo: Element Six Technologies)
HPTH and CVD – Which Came First?
Everyone is probably familiar with the
High Pressure, High Temperature (HPHT)
process dating back decades. It remains a
focus for industrial applications accounting
for 99% of the worldwide LGD market,
according to Element Six Technologies,
a De Beers company.
Primarily used in China, the
HPHT process grows diamonds
using diamond presses, i.e.
machines that mimic the extreme
pressure and heat conditions that
form diamonds within Earth’s
mantle. The needed pressure is
intense at 725,000 to 870,000 PSI
and temperatures of 2,300°F to
2,900°F. The diamond-source
powder dissolves into a molten
metal flux and deposits on diamond seed
crystals, thus forming the rough.
The other widely used LGD application,
namely for jewelry, is Chemical Vapor
Deposition (CVD). This process allows
diamonds to grow in an entirely different
way than HPHT. CVD starts with a natural
diamond slice (or seed) placed in a pressure
chamber and heated to 1,200°F to 3,000°F,
but at a much lower pressure—100 to 550
PSI—than the HPHT method.
Recent advancements have made the CVD
growth process more advantageous. When
methane and hydrogen gas are injected into
a chamber under high heat, plasma gas is
formed. The carbon atoms are then freed and
rain down onto the seed, thus growing new
diamond crystals.
This process typically produces
brown or gray diamonds that are
then turned to nearly colorless
stones through an annealing
process. Comparing the heat
required for HPHT over CVD is
like comparing the temperature
of the sun’s outer layer (HPHT)
to a much more manageable
6,000°F (CVD).
There is also the issue of
growing time and size. Gemquality
LGDs over three carats (HPTH
or CVD) may require three weeks to three
months to make, keeping in mind the first
time isn’t always the right time.
A little known
fact about the
CVD method is
that it was largely
developed by the
solar industry to
make polysilicon
for solar panels.
The CVD Process Was Invented First
In 1952, William Eversole, of Union
Carbide, pre-dated the launch of HPHT
by General Electric by two years, a strong
testimony to the power of the pen. GE made
LGD headlines in the 1950s and 1960s
while the competition shrank into a corner.
Today, the major name in mined and labgrown
diamonds is De Beers. Its Lightbox
brand—managed by its subsidiary, Element
Six—allotted $94 million over four years to
develop a Portland-area LGD facility next
to an expansive semiconductor campus. It is
presently expected to produce over 500,000
carats this year.
It is no surprise that this major market
player gains the major market news. But what
you didn’t read about was what De Beers
did not do: Certify their LGDs. De Beers
dismissed the need for distinctiveness of its
own products stating it would not grade its
LGDs because “we don’t think they deserve
to be graded.”
Many industry analysts think such sentiments
reflect the company’s wider interest
in protecting the natural diamond market,
where it continues to dominate. Last year,
De Beers’ revenue surpassed $6 billion for its
parent company, Anglo American.
In the lab-grown sector, De Beers is seen as
a CVD leader and speaks with authority on
the subject. “A relatively unknown fact about
the CVD method,” Dr. Simon Lawson, head
of De Beers technology says, “is that it was
largely developed by the solar industry to
produce polysilicon for solar panels. CVD has
always been about lessening the temperature
intensity and duration of heat. Within our
lifetime, we’ll see advancement reducing
growth time and less heat intensive protocols
coming to market.” And, Dr. Lawson was
right.
Instant Diamonds
In late 2019, scientists working for a
leading university discovered how to grow
a diamond in a fraction of a second. Enter
Stanford University and the Stanford Linear
Accelerator Center (SLAC), a laboratory
operated by Stanford University, but funded
and managed by the US Department of
Energy, Office of Science.
As if producing a diamond in the blink of
an eye wasn’t headline news in itself, they
did so without the heat and pressure
intensity that is currently required. Moreover,
those Stanford minds created a diamond
without the need of a seed.
On February 21, 2020, the Stanford group
published their findings in an in-depth, stepby-
step study in the reputed scientific journal,
Science Advances. “We wanted to see a clean
system, in which a single substance transforms
into pure diamond—without a catalyst,”
said the study’s lead author, Sulgiye Park, a
postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford’s
School of Earth, Energy & Environmental
Sciences (Stanford Earth). And they did so
with perhaps the least amount of fanfare in
the history of inventions.
From Grease to Glitz
To synthesize “instant diamonds,” the
Stanford research team began with three types
of powder refined from tankers full of aged
petroleum. At a glance, the odorless, slightly
sticky white powder resembles crushed rock
salt, but a trained eye peering through a
powerful microscope can distinguish atoms
arranged in the same spatial pattern seen in a
diamond crystal.
It’s as if the intricate lattice of diamond had
been chopped up into smaller units composed
of one, two or three cages. “It’s all very fast
and direct. The atoms do not pass through
another form of carbon, such as graphite, on
their way to making a diamond,” Park added.
Oh! Those Diamondoids
Wendy Mao, Stanford mineral physicist,
leads the lab group where Park performed
most of the experiments. Unlike a diamond,
which is pure carbon, these powders—known
as diamondoids—contain hydrogen.
“Starting with these building blocks,”
explains Mao, “you can make diamond
more quickly and easily, and you can also
learn about the process in a more complete,
thoughtful way than if you just mimic the
high pressure and high temperature found in
the part of the Earth where diamond forms
naturally.”For the process, the diamondoid samples
were placed in a plum-sized pressure chamber
(diamond anvil cell) that presses the powder
between two polished diamonds.
With a simple hand turn of a screw, the
device can create the kind of pressure found
inside the Earth. The samples were then
heated with a laser.
The researchers found that the threecage
diamondoid could organize itself into
a diamond with surprising little energy.
The transformation occurs in a fraction
of a second, directly from diamondoid to
diamond, without passing by the graphite
form.
The sample sizes inside the diamond anvil
are tiny, mere specks, thus the process is not
practical for the jewelry industry, at least not
yet. “But now we know more about the keys
to making pure diamonds,” adds Mao.
The Really BIG News
The largest lab-grown diamond in the
world, at least as of now, weighs in at 155
carats and was created by German scientists
from Augsburg University in 2017. At 92
millimeters, or 3.6 inches, in diameter, it
surpasses the largest mined diamond in terms
of surface area.
By comparison, the Cullinan I weighs 532
carats, but the Augsburg’s LGD surpasses
it in its diameter. It was grown using CVD,
but has limited jewelry use since it is in a disc
shape. While a plethora of applications in
other industries abound, how does this help
the LGD community?
Advancements, such as creating microscopic
diamonds in a second or growing a 155-carat
diamond, move us towards growing higher
quality, faster and less expensive LGDs.
When heavy investment comes into the lab grown
market and grows year-over-year, you
know you’re in the right place.
Yet some aren’t waiting for industry
advancements to hit the headlines. They are
news makers in their own right.
Advancements
such as creating
m i c r o s c o p i c
diamonds in a
second or growing
a 155-ct diamond
move us towards
higher quality,
faster, and less
expensive LGDs.
Texas and Big: Hand-in-Hand
The Diamond Room, a private diamond
retailer in Dallas and Austin,
Texas holds the majority of its
inventory in mined diamonds;
Quick to note the growth
and attention in the LGD
space, however, the retailer has
invested in the world’s largest
gem-quality LGD that has
been set in a piece of jewelry.
At 15.32 carats, the near
colorless LGD is the largest set
LDG in the world today. “We
are excited to welcome in this
triumphant feat of engineering
and science to our showroom,” says Matt
O’Desky, CEO of The Diamond Room.
“This stone is definitely a showstopper, and
after months of waiting for our chance, we
are excited to bring the largest lab-grown
diamond to Austin, Texas.”
According to O’Desky, the growth
process occurred in Moscow, Russia
through a patented process that starts with
a thin, rectangular diamond shaving of sorts,
which—from this description—
is a form of CVD. This LGD
began as a 60-carat seed and
took more than three weeks to
grow. But that’s not including the
unsuccessful trials that logged in
at three years in all.
O’Desky notes there are
limitations to the Russian
process. The carbon deposits
grow off of a seed, but the growth
is up, not out. Also, there are
color variations in browns, blues,
and even silver hues that seem
harder to control with such a large rough. “As
the growers get the recipes better and better,
it’s a fight for how big they can get,” he says.
While not originally intended for sale, the
ring now retails for $132,000 set in the split
shank halo design. O’Desky states that
he will donate $5,000 from the ring sale
to the Austin Child Guidance Center, while
hinting that there is even bigger news around
the corner.
Russian LGD growers seem to be on
their game as two of the other largest white
round and largest fancy blue LGDs were
created by a company called New Diamond
Technologies (NDT).
Expand Your Horizons
Nearly 99% of lab-grown diamonds are cut
in India, which, as of this writing, remains
one of the world’s strictest lockdowns from
the Covid-19 crisis. This means that all
Indian imports and exports are temporarily
halted, as the country is currently unable to
receive goods to cut, polish or complete what
was already in production. It is estimated
that the LGD supply chain will be clipped
50% by the close of this year.
That’s the bad news. The good news is there
are other options such as Thailand and South
Korea, two countries that have not been as
adversely affected by the pandemic as have
the United States and the United Kingdom.
Expanding your global reach and supply
chain are smart business, coronavirus or not.
Too often the jewelry industry follows one
successful operation or model, tending to
move as a group toward whatever or whoever
is providing what it needs.
Covid-19 has created the need for multiple
suppliers and, in today’s climate, you may find
highly competitive pricing, better terms, fresh
merchandise and newfound trust. When the
pandemic becomes yesterday’s news, those
who explore such options today will be the
champions of tomorrow.
On the Block
In a past story, I wrote that major auction
houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s have
never auctioned lab-grown loose stones or
finished jewelry with LGDs before.
I recently spoke with a senior executive at
one of those houses and learned that—while
they wish to remain off-the-record for now—
they are considering an all-LGD event for
12-carats and above with retail bids starting
at no less than $90,000 in early 2021.
References
● Klaus P. Prem (21 March 2017)
A 155 carat diamond with 92 mm
diameter, Presse, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit,
Information, Universität Augsburg, IDW–
Informationsdienst Wissenschaft, https://idwonline.
de/denews670029.
● Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy
& Environmental Sciences (25 February
2020) A faster, easier way to build diamond,
Science Daily, https://www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2020/02/200225164219.htm.
● Sulgiye Park, Iwnetim I. Abate, Jin Liu,
Chenxu Wang, Jeremy E.P. Dahl, Robert
M.K. Carlson, Liuxiang Yang, Vitali B.
Prakapenka, Eran Greenberg, Thomas P.
Devereaux, Chunjing Jia, Rodney C. Ewing,
Wendy L. Mao, Yu Lin (2020) Facile
diamond synthesis from lower diamondoids,
Science Advances, Vol 6, no 8, eaay9405. ■
Dan Scott is a brand architect with Luxe Licensing, a NYC/Metro brand and marketing agency.
Clients include Harry Winston, Chanel, Gucci, and JCK Virtual, as well as up-and-coming
fine jewelry and demi-fine brands. Dan welcomes conversation and may be reached at
dans@luxelicensing.com or by visiting www.luxelicensing.com.
