Lab-grown diamonds make the cut

This winter, a sparkling diamond landed in front of a technician at the Gemological Institute of America in New York City. He ran tests, noted the stone was man-made, and graded it as he would any diamond. It was the gem industry's strongest acknowledgment yet that lab-grown diamonds are just as real as natural ones.

For years, De Beers, the world's largest purveyor of natural diamonds, argued against the acceptance and GIA grading of lab-grown stones. But since 2003, synthetic diamond production has taken off, driven by consumer demand for merchandise that's environmentally friendly (no open-pit mines), sociopolitically neutral (no blood diamonds), and monopoly-free (not controlled by De Beers).

As a result, Gemesis, the leading manufacturer of gem-quality diamonds (see "The Diamond Wars Have Begun," issue 11.09), has expanded operations rapidly. Three years ago, the company had 24 diamond-producing machines; now it has hundreds - matching the cash-value output of a small mine - and is turning on a new one every other day. "At this point, we operate like any other mine," says Clark McEwen, COO of Gemesis. "We produce rough diamonds in our machines and sell to distributors who do the cutting and polishing."

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