Lab-grown diamonds put natural gems under pressure

SURAT, India: The glittering diamonds sparkle the same but there are key differences: mined natural gems are more than a billion years old, while laboratory-made rocks are new and cost less than half the price. Man-made gems are reshaping the $89 billion global diamond jewellery market, especially in the west Indian city of Surat where 90 percent of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished. Get exclusive content with Gulf News WhatsApp channel In Smit Patel’s gleaming lab, technicians drop crystal diamond “seed” slices into reactors mimicking the extreme pressure far underground. “Once the customer sees it for herself, they are sold. I believe this is the future,” said Patel, director of Greenlab Diamonds and the third generation of his…