2023-05-30 15:00:00
« BOf course, not everything is perfect and there is still a lot to improve, but the diamond industry continues its upward trajectory”, promises David Kellie. This luxury veteran, who worked for Ralph Lauren and Watches of Switzerland Group (British retailer of Swiss watches), has been running the Natural Diamond Council full-time for four years. The purpose and rationale of this body is to uphold the moral integrity of its six members.
Six mining groups: the South African diamond conglomerate De Beers Group, the Canadian company Dominion Diamond (formerly Harry Winston Diamond), the company Lucara Diamond founded by the Canadian billionaire Lukas Lundin, the very English Petra Diamonds which operates five of the mines most productive in history, including the Premier mine from which Cullinan was extracted, whose cut gems have adorned the jewels of the British crown for a century, the mining company RZM Murowa, located in Zimbabwe, and finally the Anglo-Australian multinational Rio Tinto, which is present on five continents but whose mining assets are mainly concentrated in Australia and Canada. The Russian titan Alrosa, which was among the founding members, has been erased from the organization chart since last year.
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These giants, which represent 75% of the world’s annual production of rough diamonds, have a thorn in their side: the laboratory diamond, the first real synthesis of which took place in the 1950s, thanks in particular to experiments carried out within the De Beers conglomerate. These synthetic stones, mainly used by industry, where they find numerous applications (manufacture of tools, improvement of materials, dental polishing, semiconductors, for fluorescent medical imaging, etc.), have been appealing since 1990s the jewelry industry. Nothing to say for now.
Except that a new generation of jewelers is seizing this available material to position themselves as champions of ecology. A the casualty of war for mining groups, who now want to make their share of truth heard. The stakes are high: the synthetic diamond industry, which already weighs 22 billion dollars, is growing rapidly. At the end of 2022, analyst Paul Zimnisky noted that the production of synthetic diamonds had reached 7 to 9 million carats, once morest 6-7 million carats in 2020, thus attesting to the meteoric rise in production capacities.
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The price gap increases
An enlightened truth in the light of facts and figures. To avoid any “greenwashing” lawsuits, the NDC has produced an 80-page report that avoids blind spots as much as possible. All the subjects go there – working conditions, carbon footprint, environmental impact, traceability – supporting graphics. “It is not a question of opposing the two categories or even of establishing a hierarchy, but of standing up once morest the flood of received ideas and unfounded allegations which swept with the arrival of synthetic diamonds. “Warns David Kellie. If the approach is not vindictive, some elements of the response are similar to attacks in rule: “Synthetic diamonds are not always as durable as some claim: the manufacturing process, spread over several weeks, is particularly energy-intensive and requires heat close to 20% of the temperature on the surface of the Sun”, indicates the report, which specifies: “More than 60% of synthetic diamonds are mass-produced in China and India, where 74% and 63% of grid electricity comes from coal. »
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Another angle of attack, which will hit the mark with collectors: the price. That of synthetic diamonds fell between 2016 and 2023. This reduction in price (which sometimes reaches more than 70%) reflects a drop in production costs made possible thanks to technological progress, economies of scale, not to mention competition. ferocious new producers on the market. According to Bain & Company, in the span of ten years, between 2008 and 2018, the average cost of producing a high-quality, one-carat synthetic stone dropped by 90%. To a lesser extent, retail prices for lab-grown diamonds also fell.
The price of natural diamonds is following an upward trend, even if this increase concerns more stones weighing more than 1 carat. In a 2019 study, Bain & Company noted that the prices of polished natural diamonds had increased an average of 3% per year over the past 35 years. To explain it as concretely as possible, let’s just say that a 0.5 carat synthetic diamond, almost colorless and of high quality, was bought in 2016 for the sum of 1,305 dollars, compared to 1,490 dollars for its natural equivalent. . In 2023, this same synthetic diamond is acquired for 580 dollars, while the natural diamond can be obtained for 1,255 dollars. This chasm is accentuated for stones with a higher caratage. In 2016, a 1.5 carat natural diamond cost $12,125, compared to $10,600 for a 1.5 carat synthetic diamond, a difference of $1,525. In early 2023, the retail price of a 1.5 carat natural diamond rose to $13,625, while the price of its synthetic counterpart fell to $2,445, a significantly larger difference from $11,180. Translation: if you want to make an investment, favor only natural diamonds, preferably above 1.5 carats.
To access the full report: https ://www/naturaldiamonds.com/fr/diamond-guide-fr/rapport-ndc/
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