Meet the leading country in diamond trading

2024-03-07 16:20:00, Kuriozitete CNA

Diamonds are the hardest material on Earth to find.

For thousands of years, humans have dug deep into the Earth in search of diamonds, creating some of the world's largest man-made pits in Russia and South Africa that go as far as 625 meters (2,050 feet) underground.

The intensive process has an impact on both nature and people, with dangerous working conditions and practices that damage ecosystems.

But mining is not the only way to get diamonds. The first lab-grown diamond (LGD) was produced in the 1950s, according to the International Gem Society, and the technology has continued to evolve, enabling labs to grow gem-quality crystals at affordable prices—up to 80% cheaper. without sustainability and mining concerns.

And artificial diamond growth means you can bring diamond production to the most unexpected places, including the desert.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a global leader in diamond imports and exports, but has no diamond mines. Thus, entrepreneur Mohamed Sabeg saw an opportunity not only to trade diamonds, but also to grow them.

In 2022, he co-founded Dubai-based 2DOT4 Diamonds, becoming the first to manufacture, cut and polish lab-grown diamonds in the UAE.

"Our idea was to bring mining to the consumer," says Sabeg. "Instead of diamonds flying around the world, diamonds are produced and sold locally." D

iamante in production

The company's name, 2DOT4, comes from the index of refraction of a diamond, the speed at which light passes through a diamond compared to air, which is approximately 2.4 times slower.

For Sabegu, having a name associated with a physical property of the gem is a representation that parts produced in a laboratory are identical to those in nature.

"The only difference is that we control the pressure, we control the heat, we control the gases," he says.

To grow a diamond, you start with a diamond, either lab-grown or mined, Sabeg explains. It is called a "seed" and is usually about 0.3 to 0.6 millimeters thick.

Placed inside a reactor, the seed is exposed to gases such as hydrogen, methane, oxygen and argon. It is also subjected to a pressure of up to 180 torr, about two-thirds of the pressure at the top of Mount Everest, and reaches temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit). In this way, the carbon is slowly deposited on the thin slice.

On average, 2DOT4 grows its diamonds at a rate of about 0.01 millimeters per hour. This means that every 24 hours, the stone grows to a length comparable to the thickness of two sheets of paper.

Once the diamond has grown to at least five millimeters in height, the piece is called a "block" and has three possible outcomes. It can be cut into more seeds, which will be fed back into the reactors to grow more diamonds. Or, upon request, 2DOT4 will cut and polish the gemstone. It can then be sold to jewelers and designers, or turned into a home-designed piece of jewelry./ CNA