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What is a Real Diamond?


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Diamond Terminology Explained

  • Lab-Grown

  • Mined

  • Natural

  • Created

  • Other

Lab-Grown

  • Produced in highly controlled laboratory environment

  • Chemically, physically and optically identical to earth-mined diamonds

  • Growth process begins with tiny diamond seed

  • Patented high-tech process uses pure carbon-rich gases to form diamond crystals

  • 3-5+ carat rough diamonds grow in weeks

  • Finished gems are laser-inscribed with unique identifying number

Lab-Grown

  • Produced in highly controlled lab environment

  • Growth process begins with tiny diamond seed

  • Chemically, physically and optically identical to earth-mined diamonds

  • Patented high tech process uses pure carbon rich gases to form diamond crystals

  • 3-5+ carat rough diamonds grow in weeks

  • Finished gems are laser-inscribed with unique identifying number

Mined

  • Created from carbon-containing minerals

  • Formed at high temperature and high pressure 100 miles deep in earth’s mantle

  • Pushed by volcanic eruptions close enough to earth’s surface for mining

  • Growth period is 1 to 3 billion years

  • Growing conditions exist only in the lithospheric mantle below the continental plates or deposited by asteroid impact in South America and Africa some 3 billion years ago

Natural

Term sometimes used to described mined diamonds

Created

Term sometimes used to describe lab-grown diamonds

Synthetic

  • May resemble diamond and have some, but not all diamond properties

  • Sometimes used to describe lab-grown diamonds, but is misleading because it implies false imitations

Simulated

  • Not diamonds; imitate the look of a diamond

  • Cubic zirconia is best known simulated diamond

  • Used in low-priced jewelry

What’s “Real” vs. What’s Not “Real”

Lab-grown and mined diamonds are both real. They are chemically, physically and optically identical. The atomic crystal structures of lab-grown and mined diamonds are exactly the same.

Diamonds are made of pure carbon atoms and are the hardest material on earth. Lab-grown and mined diamonds are both 10 on the Mohs hardness scale.

Diamonds can only be produced in very specific and unique growing conditions. The lab-grown process precisely duplicates the growing conditions of mined diamonds.

The pretenders: cubic zirconia, ytrium aluminum garnet (YAG), gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG), tausonite (strontium titanate), titania (synthetic rutile) and moissanite rank from 5 to 8.5 on the Mohs scale.

Synthetic or simulated diamonds don’t have the same chemical properties as diamonds. They may be natural occurring minerals or man-made, but are not pure carbon like lab-grown and mined diamonds.

Some synthetic or simulated diamonds may cost $100 per carat, but rarely more.

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