Growing of artificial diamonds angers diamond companies

Clouded in secrecy and a touch of paranoia, growing diamonds has become a huge business. The military can use grown diamonds to detect biological weapons, like anthrax. Diamonds also conduct electricity more efficiently than silicon (used in semiconductors). It's one of the hardest substances that exists. And diamond mining companies are getting worried as these scientific researchers begin to encroach on their territory. Their money. I

In the end it might be the environment that benefits the most. Along with the military.

"Like most open-pit mines, diamond mines cause erosion, water pollution and habitat loss for wildlife..."

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"Over the past decade, researchers have perfected a chemical process that grows diamonds as pure and nearly as big as the finest specimens hauled out of the ground....Diamonds are simply crystallized pure carbon, just as rock candy is crystallized sugar...

"The technology is now at a point that we can grow a more perfect diamond than we can find in nature," he says.

It's the hardest known material, of course, and it doesn't react chemically with other substances. Moreover, it's fully transparent to many wavelengths of light, is an excellent electrical insulator and semiconductor, and can be tweaked to hold an electrical charge.
It's because of these admittedly unglamorous properties that lab-produced diamonds have the potential to dramatically change technology, perhaps becoming as significant as steel or silicon in electronics and computing.

The military is interested in lab-grown diamonds for a number of applications, only some of which Butler is willing to discuss, such as lasers and wearproof coatings. Because diamond itself doesn't react with other substances, scientists think it's ideal for a biological weapons detector...

Natural diamonds aren't particularly rare. In 2006, more than 75,000 pounds were produced worldwide. A diamond is a precious commodity because everyone thinks it's a precious commodity...

Credit for the modern cult of the diamond goes primarily to South Africa-based De Beers, the world's largest diamond producer. Before the 1940s, diamond rings were rarely given as engagement gifts. But De Beers' marketing campaigns established the idea that the gems are the supreme token of love and affection. Their "A Diamond Is Forever" slogan, first deployed in 1948, is considered one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time. Through a near total control of supply, De Beers held almost complete power over the diamond market for decades, carefully hoarding the gemstones to keep prices—and profits—high. While the company has lost some of its power to competitors in Canada and Australia over the past few years, it still controls almost two-thirds of the world's rough diamonds.

Diamond growers are proud of the challenge they pose to De Beers and the rest of the natural diamond industry.

The diamond-mining companies have been fighting back, arguing that all that glitters is not diamond. De Beers' ads and its Web sites insist that diamonds should be natural, unprocessed and millions of years old. "Diamonds are rare and special things with an inherent value that does not exist in factory-made synthetics," says spokeswoman Lynette Gould. "When people want to celebrate a unique relationship they want a unique diamond, not a three-day-old factory-made stone."

De Beers does have an investment in Element Six, the company that makes thin industrial diamonds.
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