About Lab Grown Diamonds - GreenLab - Diamonds for Everyone | Gujarat | Maharashtra

Lab Grown Diamonds

Lab Grown Diamonds, also known as Lab created diamonds, Engineered Diamonds, Cultured Diamonds and Man Made Diamonds,are grown in highly controlled laboratory environments using advanced technological processes that duplicate the conditions under which diamonds naturally develop when they form in the mantle, beneath the Earth’s crust. These man-made diamonds consist of actual carbon atoms arranged in the characteristic diamond crystal structure. Since they are made of the same material as natural diamonds, they exhibit the same optical and chemical properties.

Lab diamonds are grown from the tiny carbon seeds of pre-existing diamonds. Advanced technology – either extreme pressure and heat or a special deposition process – mimics the natural method of diamond formation. Lab grown fancy colored diamonds are formed when small amounts of specific trace elements are present during the growth phase of the diamond, just like in nature. In both white and fancy colored lab diamonds, the exact composition of trace elements may differ from their natural diamond counterparts. Lab diamonds can only be distinguished from natural diamonds using specialized equipment that can detect the minor differences in trace elements and crystal growth. While people have experimented with diamond growing technology for more than a century, it has only been in the last decade that we’ve been able to perfect the science of creating gem-quality lab-created diamonds in a modern-day lab. With today’s technological advances, we are growing diamonds that are free of conflict and superior in every way to earth-mined diamonds.

Lab grown diamonds are now readily available in a variety of colorless ranges. Cultured diamonds are also available in fancy colors that are considered very rare in nature, including popular hues of vivid fancy yellow. Fancy colored lab created diamonds sell at comparatively reasonable prices compared to their natural colored diamond counterparts.

Employment

The present cutting and polishing centres are facing an acute shortage of rough diamonds . Lab -grown diamonds is the only source which can ensure the security of these jobs not only in the cutting and polishing of diamonds but in jewellery manufacturing as well as in diamond jewellery retailing .

Lab -grown diamond, which can deliver a steady and high gem quality supply will also have a huge market and markets will not only include Gems and Jewellery but will also include electronics . Lab -grown Diamonds also have a huge market in non -gem applications . Since the quality of Lab -grown Diamond is extremely high, the end markets include electronics, semiconductor, research, optics, gems and jewellery and medical . All these application areas would need a highly skilled labour force .

Over the next 20 years, Lab -grown diamonds will become a dominant player in high technology applications and can prove to be a very significant diamond source for the luxury world . By 2035 , 34 million carats of gem quality Lab -grown Diamonds can be supplied to the hi - technology verticals like semiconductor and electrical industry, sophisticated medical instrumentation etc . These are some of the diamond consumption areas that remain un -serviced today by the Earth -mined Diamonds industry (at an affordable price) to extend to the non -gem industries.

Around 2000 people are employed all across the globe for an estimated 300 ,000 carats of Lab -grown Diamond processing till 2014 . In less than 2 decades, Lab -grown Diamond industry could potentially employ nearly 10 million people in order to process 150 million carats of Lab -grown Diamond rough.

Lab-grown Diamond industry needs a skilled labour force comprising of current available cutting and polishing skills along with next generation skills brought in by Engineers, Scientists and Degree/Diploma holders. Lab-grown Diamonds can create a distinct employment roadmap for the processing country and its local economy by creating high value occupations and skill sets. Specifically for countries like India, where diamond processing is a critical employment stream, Lab-grown Diamond processing can ensure job security to thousands in near future when supply of rough Earth-mined Diamonds starts to drop.

Employment Potential through Lab-grown Diamond Processing (Nos.)

Cutting and Polishing Centre	Share	2014	2035
Engineer/Diploma holders	25%	575	24,99,500
High-skilled Operators	60%	1,380	59,98800
Support Staff	15%	345	14,99700

No Child Labour

Lab-grown Diamond Industry, being a technology intensive business requiring educated and skilled manpower and is free from Child and slave Labour.

Because children are considered an easy source of cheap labour, they are regularly employed in the diamond mining industry. In some areas of Africa, children make up more than a small part of the workforce. In these mines, children come in contact with minerals, oil and machinery exhaust. Child labour in Earth-mined Diamonds industry is a widely reported and criticized issue. According to the U.S. Department of Labour (2012), diamonds are produced with child labour in Angola, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. The U.S. Department of Labour notes that gemstones, possibly including diamonds, are only cut and polished with child labour in India.