Lab Grown Diamonds
Producing a diamond in a lab
By replicating the mining environment inside a lab we’re able to grow diamonds that are identical to the traditional mined diamonds, but without the social and environmental impacts.
A diamond seed is placed in a sealed chamber and heated to around 800 degrees Celsius. The chamber is filled with a carbon rich-gas, like Methane, among other gases.
The gases are ionized into plasma using technology similar to that of microwaves or lasers.
The ionization breaks the molecular bonds in the gases, and the pure carbon adheres to the diamond seed and slowly crystallizes.
Lab Grown v. Mined
Lab Grown Diamonds
- Avoids social and environmental conflict
- Less impactful to the environment and surrounding communities, due to reduced levels of energy required for the lab
- Greater purity and improved quality
- More affordable
Mined Diamonds
- Complex and untraceable supply chains, including political commodity chains such as blood diamonds
- Child labour, poor working conditions and low wages
- Environmental impacts including soil erosion, displaced earth, deforestation and ecosystem destruction
Environmental consumption impact of lab grown versus mined diamonds
Conventional wisdom would suggest that creating a diamond aboveground takes a lot more energy than extracting an underground diamond that Earth has already created. We researched the facts. It turns out it takes an entire factor more energy to extract an underground diamond from Earth than it takes to create one aboveground.
This means that regardless of their energy consumption, Kimai diamonds can be created using renewable energy whereas mined diamonds have a very large carbon footprint.
It's really important to know that it's only the beginning of the "Diamond Revolution" therefore there is definitely room for progress and improvements. Lab grown diamond are not perfect but they are more environmentally and socially friendly than mined ones.
Certificate
of Authentication
Lab grown diamonds are graded and certified just like mined diamonds.
At Kimaï, diamonds above 0.50ct are sent to the IGI lab that specialises in grading diamonds.
