Lab-grown or natural diamonds? Man-made gems are cheaper – and that might explain why more young people are choosing them over mined ones
- One in 10 pieces of diamond jewellery sold now contain lab-grown diamonds, and young people feel less stigma when buying one, an expert says
- Interest in lab-grown diamonds has less to do with personal ethics and more to do with how prices are too high for natural, mined gems, he adds
For California-based engineering technician Heather Lim, the choice to select a lab-grown diamond as the centre stone for her engagement ring was an easy one.
“When my then-fiancé, now-husband, asked me what I wanted in an engagement ring, I made it pretty clear that I didn’t want a natural diamond that came from a diamond mine,” Lim says.
“For me, there’s too much baggage associated with a diamond that comes from a mine, and that’s all I’d be thinking about every time I looked at it on my hand.”
New York-based industry analyst Paul Zimnisky specialises in tracking global diamond supply and demand. He estimates that lab-diamond jewellery now makes up 10 per cent of the total market for diamond jewellery – with consumer demand particularly strong in the US, though less in China.
Analysts from market research company Allied Analytics LLP estimate that the global lab-grown diamond market will reach almost US$50 billion by 2030.
