Home > About Pink Diamonds

Takara pink diamond, lab grown

Based on customer questions, we've prepared a quick overview of both natural and lab grown pink diamonds. 

Why are natural pink diamonds so expensive?

Natural pink diamonds are extremely pricey ($100,000+ per carat) due to their extreme rarity.  The only consistent supply of pink diamonds comes from the Argyle mine in Australia. 

For every one million carats of diamonds they mine, they get one carat of top grade pink diamonds.  Thus, even at their source, a top grade pink diamond (over .50ct, Fancy Intense+) is literally a one in a million diamond.  If you factor that most mines produce only whites, a pink diamond is probably one in five million diamonds mined. 

Since 1985, the Argyle mine has averaged 60-65 top grade pink diamonds per year (or 750 total pink diamonds that are over .50ct and intense color).  As their site states, you could hold their annual pink production of top pinks in your hand.

 That is the reason that natural pink diamonds have sold for as much as $1,000,000 per carat.  In a world of over 4 billion people, very, very few will ever own a top grade natural pink diamond (effectively less than 1 in 5 Million).

Why aren't there more pink lab grown diamonds available?

Given the extreme rarity of natural pink diamonds, and the corresponding high demand, the next question would be why are larger lab grown pink diamonds (over .50ct) so scarce?  The answer is that much like natural pink diamonds, its not easy to produce a lab grown pink diamond.

Our working theory on why pink diamonds are 'pink' is due to trace amounts of nitrogen being moved into specific positions called 'Nitrogen Vacancy centers'.  To get a nice pink requires a very set amount of nitrogen (not too much, not too little), a proper amount of radiation to create some vacancies, and then a bit of luck during the high pressure, high temperature treatment to move the nitrogen into the right place next to the vacancies. 

Thus, even when growing them in the lab, the majority of them will not come out with the optimal 'pure pink' or 'purple pink' color. 

Thats why in our five years of selling lab grown pink diamonds, we've had fewer than 10 pink diamonds over .50ct that had the desired stunning pink color. 

Thus, ironically, the lab grown pink diamonds are nearly as rare as their natural pink counterparts.  Lab grown pink diamond tend to sell on parity with their mined white diamond equivalents however ($5500/carat) vs. the $100,000+ per carat natural pink diamond pricing.

We do not lack for demand with lab grown pink diamonds, rather its lack of supply that constrains us.  We are currently working with two new labs to attempt to create additional supplies, but right now, even the lab grown pink diamond has a very high amount of rarity.

 

If you have any questions, please contact us via email at [email protected].