Why Buyers Shunned the World's Largest Diamond
The diamond industry depends on the illusion of scarcity. The real scare for them is that this guy has a diamond mine with a plant equipped to detect large diamonds by X-ray transmission and automatically kick them out of the rock stream before they hit the rock crusher.  Five months after he installed that, he got this huge diamond. What are the odds another one will show up in the output bin in the next year or two?<p>The diamond synthesis industry keeps getting better.  De Beers can't stop them any more.[1] (They tried with Gemesys, now Pure Grown Diamonds. The CEO was a retired US Army general and wasn't intimidated.) There's even a startup in SF now. "Your diamond is hot-forged from pure atoms in our California foundry."[2] De Beers has been frantically trying to keep ahead with machines that can distinguish synthetic from natural diamonds. They claim to be succeeding, but the test equipment required is getting more and more expensive. The diamond industry dug itself into a hole by convincing buyers that the best diamond is a flawless crystal.  Making flawless crystals is what the semiconductor materials industry does, and the techniques transfer to diamond making.<p>Small diamonds are very cheap. Diamond grit for cutting tools is about $100/Kg on Alibaba.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.puregrowndiamonds.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.puregrowndiamonds.com/</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.diamondfoundry.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.diamondfoundry.com</a>