Lab grown diamonds have grown increasingly popular over the years. Many diamond ring buyers are now opting for lab grown diamonds over mined ones for a variety of attractive reasons, from its affordability to its environmentally friendly outcomes.
If you’re new to the lab grown diamond trend, we’ve compiled a guide with everything you need to know about this new alternative to mined diamonds.
Introduction to lab grown diamonds
Lab grown diamonds hold identical structural, chemical, and optical properties to mined diamonds. Even a trained eye or tools, such as a microscope, are unable to detect the difference between a mined and lab grown diamond. The difference lies in how they are created. With lab grown diamonds, the temperature and pressure conditions that form diamonds naturally underground are instead replicated in a lab.
Diamonds can be grown in a lab using either one of these two methods: HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) and CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition), starting with a diamond ‘seed’. A new diamond stone can be produced in just weeks as compared to the billions of years mined diamonds take to form. In addition, lab grown diamonds require less laborious effort and resources, which in turn, offer greater cost savings and affordability.
Lab Grown Diamonds VS Mined Diamonds
While lab grown diamonds and mined diamonds are essentially identical in their properties, they vary in their outcomes. Both mining and lab methods utilise technology and equipment to extract or create a diamond, but each has a different impact on the environment. Here are a few differences in their outcomes:
Which uses more water and energy?
One of the biggest differences between mined and lab grown diamonds is their water and energy usage. For each carat, a mined diamond consumes more than 477 litres water, while a lab grown diamond consumes just 68 litres. According to a recent study by Frost & Sullivan, mined diamonds also cause a discharge of waste and pollutants into water bodies.
Meanwhile, mined diamonds use 538.5 million joules of energy per carat, while lab grown ones use just 250 million. Although it still seems like a large amount, the study found that a large portion of the energy used to create lab grown diamonds is renewable, so it still remains better for the environment.
Do they release carbon?
There is also a staggering difference in the carbon emissions from mined and lab grown diamonds. A traditionally mined diamond produces a whopping 56 kg of carbon for each carat.
Meanwhile, a lab ground diamond emits just 2.7 kg – merely a low percentage of what a mined diamond produces! Mined diamonds also produce more gaseous emissions overall, emitting more than 13 kg of Sulphur oxide, while a lab grown diamond emits none.
How much land is disrupted?
As mined diamonds are extracted from the earth, almost 100 square feet of land is disturbed for every carat mined, with more than 2,629 kg of mineral waste produced. Mining also disrupts delicate biodiversity balances and leaves the land unusable, even after mining activities have stopped.
In contrast, lab grown diamonds disrupt only 0.07 square feet of land for each carat, producing less than 1 kg of mineral waste.
Conclusion
From their creation to their outcomes, it is clear how lab grown diamonds are taking its place to be the new alternative to traditional options. While diamonds remained to be the preferred choice for sentimental value, you can now shop more consciously for your wallet and the environment when you opt for a lab grown diamond!
Here at SK Jewellery, we’re proud to offer affordable engagement rings and wedding bands made with beautiful lab grown diamonds in our Star Carat collection. As our lab grown diamonds are IGI certified and classified under the Type II Category, you can indulge in the purest and most valuable type of diamonds in the world – without breaking the bank!
Shop for our lab grown diamonds online or book an appointment to view them first-hand at our physical showrooms!
