The natural diamond industry is shaking. You can thank the lab-groining variety for this

When Erat Omakas started selling diamonds years ago, the engagement ring shopkeepers came in search of one thing for their bride: a real, mining diamond.

“It was just a diamond,” said Omakas, the owner of Livia Diamonds in Toronto. “And you found what you were able to get in terms of design and budget.”

These days, not so much.

Lab-Groe Diamonds have become largely popular in recent years, giving traditional, mining versions a run for their money.

Omakus says that natural diamonds had created 100 percent of their business by 2018 when lab-Groe diamonds came on a large scale market. Now, natural diamonds are only three to four percent of their business.

According to experts such as Omaka, morality, cost and rising price of every other part of life for new joints, the popularity of real diamonds has been removed. And it is having a major impact on the mining business – which also includes the north of Canada.

Last week, Burgundy Diamond Mines announced that it would close hundreds of employees and temporarily suspend operations in one of their open-pit mining sites, point lakes in northwest areas.

Eilila Calin, a communication manager for the company, said the open-pit mine “was proving to be sub-economic,” recently given Diamine dropAccording to Tenoris data, the cost of natural diamonds in shops now, which tracks diamond retail prices 26 percent less He did it only two years ago.

Canada exported $ 2.21 billion Worth diamond in 2019, it became the third largest diamond manufacturer in the world at that time. And with three diamond mines in the northwestern regions alone, the diamond industry employs thousands of people directly in that province and according to many more indirect experts, the decline in the market will mean an external impact in the north.

Growing mining vs labs?

Mining diamonds are deep forged in the Earth through heat, pressure and time, before they are dug, set in shape and set in jewelry, such as engagement rings.

Lab-Groe Diamonds Mersely repeat that process above the ground using-yasans and excessive heat, Diamonds are forged In a room in a few weeks.

“I always create an analies of snow made in my refrigeration system, which is versus ice in the cold,” said Omakus. “They are physically similar. There is no difference.”

But there is still a difference in some expert stress.

Professor Graham Piercene, Professor of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Alberta, says that the natural formation of deep underground results in a “complexity” from the natural formation of diamonds can not be found with the laboratory-developed variety.

“What do you get with (a natural diamond), it’s that you are holding an amazing piece of the deepest part of the Earth. A natural diamond is unique,” he said.

Lab-Groe Diamonds, they argue, are all similar, made of an accurate recipe-like a print of a painting.

Why have people done lab-rural?

According to Omakas, the engagement ring shoppers, however, is the only visible difference in the price tag.

While the price of a two-carat real diamond engagement ring can be $ 35,000, Omakus says that with the same clarity and color, two carat lab-gro diamonds can be only $ 3,500.

“These days with the cost of everything happening – housing, wedding expenses – people don’t want to spend a luck on a ring,” Omakus said.

This means that if people buy synthetic, they can bear very large stones, often less than the cost of a natural diamond.

According to Omakus, the technique used to make laboratory-developed diamonds has also improved dramatically, as they first came to the scene. He says that

Ethics is another reason. Forced labor and child labor Especially in Africa, there are problems in the diamond mining industry, and Hard physical work often gives very little salary. Many shopkeepers want to avoid “blood diamonds” – mined stones in African conflict areas that are used to fund rebel movements in turn. While an international grading system said Kimberly Process Since then, it has been established to help consumers know where their diamonds come from, there is still a debate. How well the system works,

Stephanie Benninger, an associate professor at marketing at Nyenrode Business University in Netherlands, has said that the marketing of diamonds has been researched, saying that the moral component played a big role in the death of natural diamonds.

Blockbuster 2006 movie blood Diamond Starring Leonardo Dicaprio exposed many consumers to the realities of the diamond mining industry. Therefore, years later, when lab-Groe diamonds that did not take equal moral concerns, consumers were prepared for them, Benninger said. (Piercene explains that lab-Gro Diamonds, however, take too much energy to forget in a lab, meaning that they are not completely free from negative effects.)

In addition, Berringer says that the shift has been generational. Benninger said that De Beers’ famous “A Diamond is Forever” Slogan sold baby boomers and Jane Xers as the traditional symbol of slacking love on the diamond engagement ring.

But Millionals are not buying it. Berringer says that the generation, as well as General Z, has also faced significant financial challenges, which is at the top of being more socially aware.

“From a functional point of view, (synthetic diamonds) do the same thing. It is very cheap, and it is more detectable from where it comes,” Benninger said.

And, Benninger says that less millennials are marrying their parents or grandparents – A Pew Research Study It was found that till 2021, 25 percent of the 40 -year -old children had never married, a new record. In 1980, this figure was just six percent.

Diamond Industry launched the “Real Is Rare” campaign in 2016, benninger, who tried Market Real Diamonds to Millionals In a low traditional way.

Given the sale of the labs grown natural diamonds vs. Benninger says it is clear that the campaign did not draw him back into the variety of mining. Benninger stated that the idea of a mining diamond as “real” is a lab-one-one as fake, which is not with young generations.

Northern mining business in trouble

For Oymakas, low diamond prices have not hurt their business. He says that when the price of the rock has fallen, people are buying big synthetic diamonds or perhaps buying more ornaments because the price is more cheap.

But this is a separate story for the north of Canada, where thousands of people are working directly in diamond mines in north -western areas.

“In a lot of cases that region of the country (its) depends on the diamonds for livelihood,” Zimniski said.

Northwest territories have three diamond mines – and they are all reducing operations now. Diavic Diamond Mine is ready to shut down Early next yearWhile gaho ku mine Estimated lifetime Set on 2031.

Piercen says that the closure of the industry in the north of Canada will have a “tremendous” effect – 1,500 direct jobs with Piercene’s estimates and many more indirectly lost, as well as a migration of people from the northern communities.

Ekati diamond mine, which is part of the line of Bindu Lake, was In the first country Piercene says that when it was opened in 1998. It would be a shame to be an industry shutter after only 30 years, says Piercene.

Piercen said, “It took many, many years and many millions of dollars, which only tries to find diamonds … and it could end all soon.” “It will be a complete tragedy.”