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A comment on A Huge Diamond Mine That Helped Build The Soviet Union (2014). Parent comment

Re:A Huge Diamond Mine That Helped Build The Soviet Union (2... by mustacheemperor on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @12:27PM (#14745483)
Do you have a source for that statement? If I'm not mistaken synthetic diamonds are almost always detectable by experienced gemologists (like the ones working at Debeers, presumably), and the timeline of synthetic diamond technology wouldn't line up either.
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Re:A Huge Diamond Mine That Helped Build The Soviet Union (2... by ericfranklin on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @07:43PM (#14749034)
Major gemological labs can certainly identify a diamond's origin (mined or grown). There are many characteristics that can identify origin, and color or clarity is rarely used as the conclusive indicator. Here is a semi-recent study of synthetic diamonds from my company: https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2014-ulrika-hpht-sy...

You are right though, gem-quality synthetic diamond technology didn't come around for several decades after this mine started producing.

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Re:A Huge Diamond Mine That Helped Build The Soviet Union (2... by mohaine on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @04:00PM (#14747510)
Last I heard for the grown diamonds it was only because the grown ones have perfect clarity and color which is never the case for natural ones. So the price goes up for clarity and color until it hits perfect then it falls back to synthetic diamond prices.

If a synthetic version is better then the natural version can you still call it synthetic?

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Re:A Huge Diamond Mine That Helped Build The Soviet Union (2... by mobilefriendly on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @08:32PM (#14749243)
No you call it curated.
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