The scintillation of 5 to 10+ carat "sustainable" designer lab diamonds set in 18kT gold or platinum for women, men and non-binary individuals .
Editor's note: Men's engagement rings are common in parts of Europe, yet sustainable large center stones are a form of "character wealth. "
LUCIDA
A 5 carat radiant-cut oval laboratory-grown diamond, graded by GIA, is the center stone. Yet, this engagement ring is a hybrid of natural diamonds accents and features the detail of micropavé .
From the Lucida collection created by Liori, the ring is made of 2.35ct F color & VS clarity natural diamonds set in 18kt white gold with the aforementioned center stone.
Retail: $25,350.00 Photo: Liori
KRATERS
Crafted with precise detail, this Karaters ring design should certainly make an impression. With five rows of lab diamonds, this stylish ring sparkles perfectly for men who seek lab diamond engagement rings or extra fashion flair. Expertly crafted by hand, this design is set in platinum and also offered in 18kt rose, white or yellow gold. It features a luxurious column split shank design that provides extra comfort and security.
Crafted in the Los Angeles's jewelry district, all of Karater's lab ad natural diamonds are graded by a GIA Certified Gemologist.
AUTHURS
This kite set mens diamond ring features a round lab-grown diamond that weighs 2.00 carats total weight. The diamond is G in Color and SI1 in clarity is sold as a men's engagement ring or wedding ring and retails for $$11,799.00 US Photo: Authurs Jewelers
LORIDA
Lorida iamond presents a trio micropavé diamond engagement ring set with 4 carat `oval cut, GIA graded lab grown diamond is blended with 0.90ct F color & VS clarity earth mined diamonds set in 18kt white gold. The retail price of this ladies hybrid design is $17,600. Photo: Lorida Diamonds
LILLYA
A jaw dropping 22 carat emerald-cut center lab diamond is GIA graded as
G VS2 set in 18kt white gold. The retail price is $177,309.00 US
GROWN BRILLIANCE
5 1/5 ctw emerald-cut lab-grown diamond (FG, VS2+) from Grown Brilliance.
This luxe eternity non-binary 8.7mm width lab band set in platinum and retails for $31,050 US Photo: Grown Brilliance
THE LAST PINK DIAMOND ?
Nearly 90 percent of the planet's most vivid pink natural diamonds were routinely unearthed from Australia’s Argyle mine. It was the “go-to” open pit mine source when one desired the most precious, natural, and rare shades of magenta and orchid, or a stunning assortment of taffy to blush pinks and violet-hued fancy diamonds. After thirty-seven years of operations and producing over 865 million carats of rough premiere fancy diamonds, the mines’ operator, Rio Tinto, decommission the mine in 2020. Photo: Robert Cerrone for GIA
By Dan Scott Editor's note: Updated information from Science America, June 2024
CLOSED FOREVER
While the oldest diamond in recorded history is 3.3 billion years old, wasn’t a colored stone, nor did it come from the most complicated and hidden region of the underworld.
The reason “the last pink diamond” is now quietly coming to light first required cross-referencing from teams of renown scientists, geologists, and gemologists running and re-running data; moving from peer-to-peer reviews to confirm the uncanny consistency of their response: the true age of this “last pink diamond” is now been officially confirmed to be 1.6 billon years old.
And, it was purchased in late 2022 before the stone was cut and polished at an unknown price, apparently impossible to ignore, so the news of all 70 stones being sold was true, just not complete. Photo: James Synder for Getty
SCIENCE SAYS
Western Australia’s Argyle mine was among nature’s preeminent treasure troves for nearly 40 years. At its peak, Argyle produced more colored diamonds than anywhere else on Earth and earned an especially sparkling reputation for its unparalleled cache of pink diamonds.
Researchers have spent decades trying to unravel the origins of Argyle’s glimmering gems. Now, by dating minerals in the mine’s volcanic rock, scientists think they may have finally pieced together the process that created the deposit around 1.3 billion years ago. In a paper published on Tuesday in Nature Communications, the team posits that the breakup of an early supercontinents lifted Argle's salmon colored natural diamonds from crushing depths toward the Earth's surface.
Photo: Science America
Old news in the Billions of Years.
In November of 2022 just before declaring the Argyle mine closed forever, only 69 rare pink roughs with an unexpected and extremely rare red diamond were excavated from the famed mine. This is certainly not topical news but what you’re about to read is. Most are aware that Tiffany acquired the rare red diamond with 34 other highly sought-after vivid pinks from Rio Tinto’s Argyle pit. That specific transaction took nearly two years to complete. The remaining 35 diamonds displaying shuttle graduations of vivid pink shades were sold to private investors in 2022 also. That was Rio Tinto's formal announcement, and that is exactly what the diamond, jewelry, and mining industry trades communicated, by and large. But that is not the end of this story. Photo: Rio Tinto
Shop Talk
This story wouldn't have been explored or written if I hadn't been speaking with a good friend and long-time diamond aficionado, and former trade industry publisher for one of the most celebrated industry magazines of its day.
Her name is Debra Ballard.
Today, Ballard is President of Ballard Luxe https://BallardLuxe.com
and her intense passion and her fine jewelry and diamond work
ambition is contagious.
She’s a supercharged knowledge of current-day retail merchandising beyond being integrated within some of the world’s finest diamonds and gemstones and the designers behind wearable art. Argyle certainly stopped but Ballard only touches a pause button for contemplating purposes.
Ballard’s DNA is far too luxury-aligned with her Florida-based business to be anything but bespoke. With decades of gem-inspired global travel, especially to Europe, Ballard would find herself spending many days in Antwerp surrounded by
fine-tuned diamond dealings.
I always enjoy our conversations surrounding her travels, thoughts, and projections with the fine jewelry industry, yet we didn’t expect the conversation to move into a feature story.
Fancy This
In November of 2022 just before declaring the Argyle mine closed forever, only 69 rare pink roughs with an unexpected and extremely rare red diamond were excavated from the famed mine. This is certainly not topical news but what you’re about to read is. Most are aware that Tiffany acquired the rare red diamond with 34 other highly sought-after vivid pinks from Rio Tinto’s Argyle pit. That specific transaction took nearly two years to complete. The remaining 35 diamonds displaying shuttle graduations of vivid pink shades were sold to private investors in 2022 also. That was Rio Tinto's formal announcement, and that is exactly what the diamond, jewelry, and mining industry trades communicated, by and large. But that is not the end of this story.
While the oldest diamond in recorded history is 3.3 billion years old, wasn’t a colored stone, nor did it come from the most complicated and hidden region of the underworld.
The reason “the last pink diamond” is now quietly coming to light first required cross-referencing from teams of renowned scientists, geologists and gemologists running and re-running data; moving from peer-to-peer reviews to confirm the uncanny consistency of their response: the true age of this “last pink diamond” is now been officially confirmed to be 1.6 billion years old.
And, it was purchased in late 2022 before the stone was cut and polished at an unknown price, apparently impossible to ignore, so the news of all 70 stones being sold was true, just not complete.
Photo: Rio Tinto
No one from Rio Tinto or former workers at Argyle would speak to how, or why there is a single 3.47 fancy intense pink radiant Argyle diamond left from the final extraversions when Rio Tinto’s press stated otherwise. But the Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) and the Australasian Society for Historical Archeology (ASHA) did. Jane Rooke, ASHA head of communications handed me a gem of a tale.Some of the finest vivid natural pinks, and even a very rare red were among the final 70 fancy diamonds pulled from the famed Argyle mine. Photo: De Beers
The Argyle mine was the first successful commercial diamond mine to exploit a highly unusual volcanic pipe or vein of subvolcanic rock natural system to find and extract select stones.
What makes this so special is this form of pipe leads to some of the oldest diamonds known to man. It is also one of the most dangerous and often left-behind methods of mining.
Should one pick too deep, too loud, or both many lives may end in minutes. Ancients would call miners who dared to work with subvolcanic often 500 or more miles below the mantle, the diamond pits sacrifice, as even today, it is nearly impossible to create a successful rescue mission once subvolcanic pipe and surrounding core earth has one inherent goal. Stop whatever movement just occurred and do it instantly and repeatedly activated by non-earth-producing vibrations. If a reconnaissance team was to attempt any form of rescue in this situation, pockets of self-detonating methane gas and plumes of hydrogen sulfide would ensure additional horrid deaths.
These are the types of investment quality diamonds and secret stories that the UHNWI crave, at times over gold and other tangible art treasures. This ancient diamond discovery marks a new day. A day of portable wealth, and a return to a time of great personal extravagance, and a means to display such extreme wealth. It’s one of the reasons the Rockefellers aren’t often seen in public, rather protected in highly controlled on-property dinner parties, or the type of private concert Beyoncé’s contract with Tiffany mandates. UHNWI know flaunting their wearable wealth to those with less can create havoc. But doing so among like parties where even close family members must disrobe under metal detectors prior to exiting a venue is the new norm.
The final natural diamond gifts from the Argyle mine remind us that those that have the gumption and driving determination to explore the unthinkable, perhaps pipe dreams are not for dreamers, there are for die-hard doers.
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