Paper short abstract:

Enabled by technological advancements and lowering costs of lab-grown techniques, gemstones are now being mass-produced in laboratories. This paper examines how making nature in laboratories may challenge a century premised on extractive logics and the artificial scarcity of natural substances.

Paper long abstract:

In March 2015, the world's largest diamonds producers met at Rio Tinto's headquarters in London to discuss the "fake gems issue," or the increasing threat posed to the mining industry by laboratory-grown diamonds. Four years later, enabled by energy improvements, technological advancements, and lowering prices in lab-grown techniques, mineral resources are now being mass-produced for jewelry and industrial purposes. The share of lab-grown gemstones in the market expands every year, and producers' associations launch marketing campaigns, organize synthetic detection courses to enhance the value of natural gemstones, and step up verification technologies to distinguish between 'fake' and 'real' gemstones. Notwithstanding efforts to differentiate the natural product from undisclosed synthetic sourcing, lab-grown diamonds are now on target to outpace the mined industry in the near future.

Drawing from research in laboratories producing 'man-made' gemstones as well as other certification and grading laboratories, this paper takes stock of these transformations to interrogate the material boundaries between natural and synthetic properties and to assess, more broadly, the future of the mining industry. How are these synthetic gemstones distinct from natural ones with identical physical properties? What specific attributes (material, ethical, or human) make legible these man-made or lab-grown minerals? More broadly, how do these transformations challenge extractive logics and a century premised on the artificial scarcity of natural products?