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Don’t panic, but synthetic diamond production is soaring

Eyes peeled: De Beers spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year refining its ability to detect synthetic diamonds PIC: DE BEERS
Eyes peeled: De Beers spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year refining its ability to detect synthetic diamonds PIC: DE BEERS

The numbers of synthetic diamond labs in India is due to jump to 9,000 this year from 6,000. In the US last year, a third of all diamond engagement rings sold were synthetic and diamond giant, De Beers, says labs are increasingly innovative in their treatments to mask their stones. But natural diamond experts say there’s no need for panic, reports Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI

For the outside observer, of late, the diamond industry has been dominated by debates over the sanctions against Russian diamonds, the efficacy of the Kimberley Process and more recently, De Beers’ negotiations with Botswana.

Debates on lab grown or synthetic diamonds – which exploded onto the news in the 2000s and posed an existential threat to the natural stones as well as economies reliant on them – appeared to generally take a backseat in recent times.

Editor's Comment
Depression is real; let's take care of our mental health

It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment. We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it...

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