Objectively, diamonds grown above the Earth are more pure than 'dirt diamonds' that are blasted out of the Earth with dynamite and diesel. Compared to diamonds grown in the chaos under the Earth, diamonds grown by mankind have fewer defects and less strain in the crystal structure.
Quite simply, the more pure the diamond, the better, brighter, and whiter the gemstone. Virtually all of Ada's laboratory-grown diamonds receive the highest purity rating from non-profit gemological institutes (Type IIa), whereas less than 2% of mined diamonds receive the coveted Type IIa purity rating.
It is not impossible to determine the exact origin of every single mined diamond in a piece of diamond jewelry, as over 6 billion carats of diamonds have been extracted out of the Earth over the last few centuries, and the vast majority were mined in the century before the Kimberley Process was established in 2003.
Furthermore, since the implementation of the Kimberley Process, there have been credible reporting of diamond smuggling out of conflict zones, large discrepancies in international diamond transactions, and documented instances of massacre at diamond mines.
Thus, it is Ada Diamonds position that the only way to be absolutely certain of the origin of diamonds is to purchase grown diamonds instead of mined diamonds.
Diamond mines are some of the largest holes ever dug in the Earth, requiring immense amounts of fossil fuels to extract the gemstones with heavy machinery. The Mirny Diamond Mine is almost a mile in diameter and 1,722' deep. It is the second largest hole in the Earth.
While lab diamonds are vegan, mined diamonds are not, with damage to watersheds and ecosystems far beyond the hole in the ground. One single diamond mine to be dug in India in the coming years will require the cutting down of 492,000 trees and the destruction of a Bengal Tiger corridor.
Furthermore, diamond mining gets less sustainable every year, whereas growing diamonds is getting more sustainable. Many diamond growers are already using renewable energy to grow diamonds and multiple diamond growing facilities are under construction in areas where renewable power is readily available.
Today, lab diamonds are 40-50% less expensive than mined diamonds of comparable quality. This is for two reasons: the supply chain for lab-grown diamonds is much more efficient and the profits of De Beers and the other diamond mining companies are quite large.
Thus, you can purchase a much larger and better quality diamonds for a given budget if you choose lab grown diamonds over mined diamonds. For example, for roughly the same cost of a 1.5 carat solitaire engagement ring from a luxury retailer, you can purchase a 2.0 to 2.5 carat lab grown diamond of the same quality from Ada Diamonds.
When you purchase lab diamond jewelry from Ada Diamonds, you are investing in the future of humanity, as you are directly supporting research and development in cutting edge technology in categories such as:
How? Every one of Ada's main diamond growers is actively growing diamonds for purposes other than gemstones. Those diamond growers use the revenue from the gemstones they grow to fund their R&D efforts and to expand their production capacity.
Thus your purchase from Ada Diamonds is directly supporting the development of high tech applications of diamonds such as better surgical knives, faster charging electric vehicles, more efficient water purification, high pressure anvils, more powerful LEDs & lasers, faster semiconductors, more efficient solar power generation, and more.