Pandora is the world’s biggest jeweler by volume, and they rocked the gem world Tuesday by announcing their plan to scrap the use of mined diamonds for any of their new designs.
That’s right, going forward, the company said they will only use and sell man-made stones produced in a laboratory.
So, what’s the difference? The diamonds grown in labs are apparently physically, chemically and optically the sam as diamonds that are mined. They are identical, so unless your wife, fiancé or significant other walks around with a loop in her eye all day she’s not going to notice the difference.
You will see a big difference when you are making the purchase. Mined diamonds are a fraction of the cost of the kind you are used to, literally up to 10 times cheaper.
Pandora already started to transition in 2020. Mined diamonds went into roughly 50,000 pieces they created. That’s a small percentage of the 85 million items they produced, but they are on their way to a full conversion.
Why are they doing this? The CEO, Alexander Lacik said he believes diamonds should be “affordable” and “sustainable.”
He told the BBC “we want to become a low-carbon business. I have four children, I’m leaving this earth one day, I hope I can leave it in a better shape than maybe what we’ve kind of created in the last 50 years or so.”
Many people also believe that mined diamonds do less harm to the environment and there is no issue with human rights abuses that sometimes goes along with mined diamonds.
The lab created gems are graded with the 4C’s – cut, color, clarity and carat.
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