Diamond engagement rings date back all the way to 1477 when Archduke Maximillian proposed to his fiance Mary Burgundy with a diamond ring. However, diamond engagement rings didn’t take off in popularity until the mid 1900s. In 1947 De Beers, a British-owned diamond company, started a new advertising campaign whose slogan was “A diamond is forever.” After this ad campaign launched it didn’t take long for diamond engagement rings to become popular, after this ad campaign there was a 50% increase in diamond engagement ring sales. In 1939 only about 10% of engagement rings contained diamonds and now diamond rings are the most popular trend out there, according to a Koser Jewelers article written by Mandy Youtz on November 20th, 2020 titled “A Brief History of Diamond Engagement Rings.” Diamonds have never failed to disappoint with their shiny glimmer seen as soon as the light hits it which may be the reason that nearly 90% of engagement rings now contain diamonds this also comes form the article written by Mandy Youtz. Historically, diamonds have been found in the ground and in gigantic diamond mines, typically in African countries, but now lab grown diamonds are becoming more popular due to multiple reasons. In order to better understand why lab grown diamonds are a superior alternative to natural diamonds, it is important to know what diamonds are, how natural diamonds are mined and how lab grown diamonds are made, if natural and lab grown diamonds are the same, impacts natural and lab grown diamonds have on the environment, and what goes on inside diamond mines.

All diamonds are virtually the same in composition whether they are natural or grown in a lab. Diamonds are made up of 99.95% carbon no matter how they are made according to GIA’s “Diamond Description” online article. GIA continues that natural diamonds have trace elements that only makeup about 0.05% of the diamond. Trace elements are elements that aren’t actually needed to make the diamond but they give diamonds different colors or can impact the shape of the crystals that make up the diamond. Graphite is also made up of all carbon just like diamonds but the crystal structure is very, very different. The bonds of the atoms are very different between the two. The bonds in diamonds are much, much stronger making them the hardest mineral on earth and can only be scratched by another diamond, graphite however is one of the softest minerals because the bonds of the atoms are significantly weaker. Graphite isn’t clear like diamonds either even though they are both made of the same thing. However, just as diamonds and graphite are made in different ways, natural and lab grown diamonds can be grown differently.

Diamonds are mined and made in different ways even though they are virtually the same thing whether they are natural or lab grown. The first mining style is pipe mining; there are two different types of pipe mining, open-pit mining and underground mining. Open-pit mining is performed over underground deposits that have pushed the diamonds up through the earth after they were made miles and miles under the surface under a high pressure and temperature environment. When mining in an open-pit mine, layers of sand and rock are blasted apart and then hauled away where the diamond extracting process later takes place. Underground mining is performed in two tunnels one on top of the other with funnels, essentially holes connecting the two. The mining occurs in the top tunnel where the sediment is blasted away then swept down the funnels, after it reaches the bottom tunnel it is loaded up and brought to the surface where it is then sorted and searched through for diamonds. Second, alluvial mining, alluvial mining is done in rivers and streams near diamond deposits (areas where diamonds are found). Gravel and mud that contains diamonds gets carried downstream and is later collected through different methods, often walls are built to keep the water in a certain area and where the mud and gravel can be collected to later be sorted through in search of diamonds. Lastly, marine mining, marine mining is a process that sucks up gravel from the sea bed, through a hose, to be searched and sorted in hopes of finding diamonds, all of this information about mining is in accordance with Shimansky’s “Discover Diamonds - Mining,” online article. Now lab grown diamonds obviously aren’t made in the same way as natural diamonds but there are two different processes used to make lab grown diamonds. The first method of making diamonds in a lab is the HPHT method, which stands for high pressure high temperature this is according to Ritani’s February 1st, 2022 article titled “How Are Lab-Grown Diamonds Made?” During the HPHT method, the high pressure and temperature environment is recreated in a chamber with a diamond seed, a tiny diamond, placed in the chamber. The diamond seed is placed in carbon and the high pressure and temperature causes the carbon to melt around the diamond seed, then is cooled into a diamond. The second method of making diamonds in a lab is the CVD method, which stands for chemical vapor deposition. During the CVD process, a diamond seed is placed in a vacuum chamber that is eventually filled with carbon rich gasses and heated to extremely high temperatures. In these temperatures the carbon gas releases pieces of carbon, then the pieces of carbon layer onto the diamond seed to form the diamond. Both types of lab grown diamonds and natural diamonds are essentially the same things with no obvious difference, however, lab diamonds can be purer which in a lot of cases is better.

Natural and lab grown diamonds have no obvious difference making them the same thing but a better alternative. Natural and lab grown diamonds both have the same properties. They are both made up of carbon but natural diamonds can have trace elements of nitrogen from when they were created miles below the earth’s surface but diamonds grown in labs don’t typically contain trace elements of nitrogen making them purer. Looking for these trace elements of nitrogen is the main way that a scientist can determine what diamonds were natural and which diamonds were made in a lab. The trace elements of nitrogen are not visible to the naked eye nor is there any difference between the two to the naked eye. There are two main differences between natural and lab diamonds, the first is the fact that one is made deep within the earth and the other is made in a lab. The second difference is that one takes millions of years to grow and the other only takes a couple of months, this information came from Nathan Alan’s “Guide to Lab Created Diamond Engagement Rings.” Both natural and lab grown diamonds have environmental impacts but natural diamonds still have a greater impact on our planet than lab grown diamonds.

Natural and lab grown diamonds have negative effects on the environment but the effects of each weigh on each other making lab grown diamonds a better alternative. In order to produce a lab grown diamond a very large amount of energy is necessary to produce the diamond. This information comes from an article written by Amanda Butcher called “Is Growing Diamonds a Sustainable Alternative to Diamond Mining'' for the International Gem Society. During the process of creating a one carat lab grown diamond a staggering 511 kilograms (1,126 pounds) of greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere which is more than three times that of a mined diamond. However, mining for diamonds has a devastating effect on the environment and ecosystems around the mine. During the mining process, an average of 250 tons of rock, dirt, sand, and sediment is moved for just one carat of diamond. In order to move all of this material heavy machinery is used which takes fuel and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere just like lab grown diamonds. But, there is also a devastating effect on the ecosystems around mines and around marine mining sites. Diamond mines don’t only have negative effects on the environment but also on the miners working inside of them.

Life as a diamond miner isn’t nearly as shiny as the diamonds miners find. Diamond miners often live in small towns with other miners in very poor conditions. The miners live in shacks and tent like structures because they make less than a dollar a day and can’t afford anything more. In these mining towns most if not everybody is uneducated, hunger is prominent, and the citizens lack the basic necessities. There are also many health problems in the mines and in mining towns. In mining towns, the sex trade runs rampant which results in the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and infections. There is also a major problem in the mines with malaria, mudslides, and mines collapsing. Malaria becomes a problem when mining pits are deserted and rainwater and mosquitos get into them to create prime conditions for malaria to arise. These mosquitoes then come out of the mines and if they bite a human can give them malaria and keep spreading it throughout the village. Malaria could also arise in mining pits still used which can become a problem even faster. Mudslides are also a problem because many of the miners don’t have proper, if any, training which can make mines a dangerous and hostile environment for the miners. Mudslides can happen at any point in time as well as the mines collapsing and both can suffocate miners killing them and leaving others injured. Children are often working in these mines as well which puts them at great risk of injury or worse, death. A survey of diamond miners conducted in the Lunda Norte province of Angola found that nearly 46% of diamond miners were children between the ages of five to sixteen. Kids are often used for this strenuous work because they are a source of cheap labor and can fit in small places. They aren’t able to go to school because their families often can’t afford it which leaves them to do this physically grueling task. Children often have to work six or seven day weeks with long hours every day, and since they aren’t able to attend school, once they get older the only thing they are left to do is to continue working in the mines, all of this information comes from Brilliant Earth, an online website. All of these things that happen inside the mines and as a result of these mines just add to the list of things that make lab grown diamonds a better alternative to natural diamonds.

Lab and natural diamonds are both made up of 99.95% carbon, natural diamonds can contain tiny amounts of trace elements which give them different colors, lab grown diamonds on the other hand typically don’t have any trace elements but other than that lab and natural diamonds are the exact same as lab grown diamonds. Natural diamonds are formed miles and miles below the earth’s surface and then pushed up through explosions under the surface where miners later dig to retrieve the diamonds through open-pit mining, underground mining, alluvial mining, and marine mining, all of which have devastating effects on the ecosystems around the mines. There are two different methods of creating lab grown diamonds, HPHT (high pressure, high temperature) and CVD (chemical vapor deposition). Both types of diamonds are virtually the same, they have the same properties, however lab grown diamonds are typically purer, and one is made in the earth while the other is made in a lab. There are environmental downfalls to both types of diamonds, but the effects of natural diamonds are much worse because a large amount of earth is moved with heavy machinery which takes energy, typically coming from burning fossil fuels, to find diamonds and mining destroys the ecosystems around the mines. The negative effects of lab grown diamonds is just the fact that it takes lots of energy to create the environments needed to create the diamonds, which also comes from burning fossil fuels. Lastly, miners go through terrible hardships in their jobs from grueling work to dangerous situations and kids going through the same things as adults but even more dangerous since they can fit in smaller spaces. To sum it all up, natural and lab grown diamonds are the same thing but lab grown diamonds are a more sustainable option because of the effects on the ecosystems, atmosphere, and people involved. The first, known, diamond engagement ring given was the one Archduke Maximillan gave to his fiance Mary Burgundy in 1477 but didn’t actually take off until a 1947 De Beers ad campaign saying “A diamond is forever.” But while a diamond may be forever unsustainable mining tacts don’t have to be with the creation of lab grown diamonds.