A few years ago you could have assumed all diamonds had been dug out of the ground – but now it’s true that some of them have been created, at unbelievably high temperatures, in just a matter of weeks.
In the first of two Business Daily programmes about the evolving diamond market, Lesley Curwen heads to the glamorous jewellery district of Hatton Garden in London – to see how the jewellery world is being re-shaped by the mass production of laboratory-made stones.
We hear from India how they’re created in temperatures as hot as the sun - and talk to one of the world’s biggest jewellery brands about why they are using only man-made diamonds.
We also look at claims that man-made diamonds are the green and ethical choice.
(Picture: Tweezers holding a diamond. Credit: Getty Images)
Presenter: Lesley Curwen Producer: Barbara George