Russia is among the largest producers of raw diamonds, contributing 21% of total worldwide production. Mirna mines in Russia, though closed now, produced 2 million carats of natural diamonds for personal and industrial applications. Diamonds are cut to highlight their aesthetic traits.
Synthetic diamonds came into production in the beginning of the 20th century, but weren’t very successful. The Gemological Institute of America started analytical studies for comparing synthetic diamonds with the mined variety offered by countries like Russia, in the 1950’s. It’s noteworthy that Russia also produces large quantities of synthetic diamonds.
Russian Natural Diamonds
Natural diamonds coming from Russia have varying quality. It’s a state run industry there, with the Government selling the diamonds to gem cutters or to heavy industry, as per the quality of the diamond. Russian natural diamonds are progressively being used for making jewelry, while cheaper synthetic diamonds are absorbed by the industry.
Russia is among the major producers of synthetic diamonds. For a long time these diamonds failed to reproduce the quality and color of natural diamonds, but in the 1980’s, the Russians developed a compact machine that could successfully produce industrial grade diamonds at optimum cost.
Other Synthetics
Though the Russians dominated the early research for producing synthetic diamonds, American research and entrepreneurship contributed to developing non-industrial markets for these diamonds. In 2008, researchers at Carnegie-Mellon developed a process for making synthetic diamonds with characteristics similar to mined diamonds. These synthetics are substantially cheaper than Russian natural diamonds.
Cost versus Quality
Though the natural diamonds from Russia are more expensive than the synthetic variety produced in North America, and the quality of synthetics is not easily disguisable from natural diamonds, natural diamonds continue to be more sought after. Natural diamonds could be up to three times more expensive than their synthetic counterparts of the same quality being used for making jewelry.
Considerations
It makes a better proposition to use synthetic diamonds for industrial applications as they offer the properties of natural diamonds at a very affordable price.
Generally, natural diamonds are considered better than synthetic ones only because of their aesthetic appeal. With depleting supplies of natural diamonds and the affordable price of synthetic diamonds, the latter are sure to become more popular for making jewelry.
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