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De Beers To Sell Diamonds Made In a Lab (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: De Beers, which almost single-handedly created the allure of diamonds as rare, expensive and the symbol of eternal love, now wants to sell you some party jewelry that is anything but. The company announced today that it will start selling man-made diamond jewelry at a fraction of the price of mined gems, marking a historic shift for the world's biggest diamond miner, which vowed for years that it wouldn't sell stones created in laboratories. The strategy is designed to undercut rival lab-diamond makers, who having been trying to make inroads into the $80 billion gem industry. De Beers will target younger spenders with its new diamond brand and try to capture customers that have been resistant to splurging on expensive jewelry. The company is betting that it can split the market -- with mined gems in luxury settings and engagement rings at the top, and lab-made fashion jewelry aimed at millennials at the bottom. "Lab grown are not special, they're not real, they're not unique. You can make exactly the same one again and again," Bruce Cleaver, chief executive officer of De Beers, said in an interview Tuesday. De Beers says the man-made diamonds will not compete with mined stones. It's so adamant about this that it will not grade them in the traditional way. "We're not grading our lab-grown diamonds because we don't think they deserve to be graded," Cleaver said. "They're all the same."

As for pricing, "The lab diamonds from De Beers will sell for about $800 a carat," reports Bloomberg. "A 1-carat man-made diamond sells for about $4,000 and a similar natural diamond fetches roughly $8,000."

7 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Fake beers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sincerely hope other fake diamond makers run these fuckers out of business.

  2. Love the sales strategy here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "This product sucks. It's garbage. You don't want it. It's for losers. Embarrassingly bad. Don't be caught dead with one. Come get 'em, half off everybody! We got lots!"

  3. make them out of monkey poop by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seriously, you can make diamonds out of any carbon source. So if the goal is to debase lab grown diamonds as low cost and therefore low value, make them out of literal monkey poop. Here you go honey, a 1 carat diamond, I got it cheap because it's made from monkey poop.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:make them out of monkey poop by dcw3 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Better yet, what about diamonds literally made of part of the husband's penis? "Look honey, I gave up the remainder of my foreskin to make this ring for you!"

      It would bring new meaning to "the family jewels".

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
  4. Let's keep traditions by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Funny

    and at least have children working at these new labs.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  5. Re:Scam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    De Beers brews diamonds. That headline would be something special though.

  6. $800 a carat or $4000 a carat? Lab vs man-made? by LaughingRadish · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The lab diamonds from De Beers will sell for about $800 a carat," reports Bloomberg. "A 1-carat man-made diamond sells for about
    $4,000...". So, a lab diamond is $800 a carat and a man-made diamond is $4000 a carat? What's the difference between a lab diamond and a man-made diamond?

    I thought Bloomberg was rich enough to hire copy editors.