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Worst_username_eu t1_iz004vp wrote

Interesting to measure it in time to get 1 diamond, can you not synthesise millions at the same time?

Edit: It is measured in hours per carat to be clear. You can synthesise loads at the same time but not enough to outperforming mining at these two specific mines. Also they chose a lab making 30 diamonds at a time when they could have chosen a lab making 60, 300, 3000.

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mazzivewhale t1_iz173qr wrote

Almost seems as if this research was sponsored by someone who has interests in the diamond mine industry and would be put at risk by synthesized diamonds. Messing with the units of measurement until it shows the result that makes it seem better for them to keep running diamond mines.

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aesche t1_iz2seeq wrote

"Scientists [in Gaborone, Botswana]...."

edit: me remembering you can't just say stuff-- Gaborone is where the De Beers Group is

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Zhai t1_iz3t44t wrote

Yeah guys, slaves are more effective. Choose natural diamonds. They should have compered also the amount of human suffering while they are at it.

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Bagline t1_iz3rdmr wrote

I'm confused as to the point though, saying there's less labor cost makes no difference to the people buying the product. If anything it says labs employ more people per carat produced, and last I checked at a lower overall cost.

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Strazdas1 t1_iz44dqc wrote

its an attempt to show they arent exploiting those child slaves in the mines since they work oh so little.

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TerpenesByMS t1_iz3taau wrote

The article's framing is dumb. Synthetic gem-grade 1 carat cut diamonds are super impressive! When the tech matures a bit more, these stats will be a better comparison to "traditional" (* cough * exploitative) diamond mining.

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Strazdas1 t1_iz44gcu wrote

The tech is fine, its political limitations that are the issue. In most places you are legally not allowed to sell synthetic diamonds as diamonds despite them being chemically identical and clearer than anything in a mine.

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Gigazwiebel t1_iz4791k wrote

Where would that be? Diamond is chemically a well defined thing, no matter how it's produced. Also lab made diamond has many industrial use cases.

Normally a mined diamond has a certificate to show that it was in fact mined and not made in a lab.

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UniqueName39 t1_iz4echb wrote

I dunno. This means that mined diamonds should be cheaper than synthetic diamonds.

Sounds to me like someone is trying to gouge customers. And it ain’t the science diamonds.

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unpopulrOpini0n t1_iz01xnb wrote

It depends on the size and number of the autoclaves, but yes you can make many very large diamonds much more easily than individual 1 carat diamonds.

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scarabic t1_iz0w3s2 wrote

Yes whether you are using humans to mine or machines to synthesize, you can set up work in parallel, so duration to produce 1 diamond seems like a useless metric to me. Cost per karat would be more interesting.

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party_benson t1_iz1kz83 wrote

Well, diamond mines are paid for in blood, so they're considered low cost.

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ImMeltingNow t1_iz1pkkr wrote

if you donate a gallon of blood you get a lot of money at the blood bank.

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creggieb t1_iz2l79h wrote

They get suspicious if you bring it all in at once though.

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ImMeltingNow t1_iz6io6j wrote

I own a crematorium

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creggieb t1_iz6lisq wrote

Powdered blood is much easier to store and transport than liquid blood. Maybe you are onto something

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ImMeltingNow t1_iz6nrxf wrote

I was referring to the eventual investigation into how I obtained said blood. The evidence would be gone poof like dust

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achard t1_iz1u4fk wrote

Not really a donation then is it?

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Strazdas1 t1_iz44iho wrote

Cant do cost per carat. It would show that synthesizing is better and this research was funded by the mine owners.

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FranticPonE t1_iz1rjr7 wrote

Paid for by the diamond mining corporation for mining diamonds.

Seriously just "time" as labor is ridiculous, you don't even need to have people in the lab for growing diamonds. BTW this was funded by "We love diamonds" Russia. Honestly shouldn't even appear on this sub.

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sharrrper t1_iz12t75 wrote

The measurement is "carats per hour" not "diamonds per hour".

So one 5 carat diamond pulled out of the ground and five 1 carat diamonds pulled out of the machine would be equal production in this study.

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DietUnicornFarts t1_iz1q9bx wrote

Hmm.. I wonder if the diamond industry had anything to do with this study..

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aphelloworld t1_iz1uy9c wrote

But then you would need a million time. Divide that by labor and you get 4 humans, which is less than 6 diamonds.

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[deleted] t1_iz0hgkl wrote

So actually the synthetic labor was for millions and needs to be divided by that to show the true labor costs of one synthetic diamond?

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