Diamonds in Demand

Diamonds are in high demand from scientists and engineers who see a world of possibilities.

Companies like Apollo diamonds have started "virtual diamond mines" using lab grown gemstones that are almost indistinguishable from the real deal.

The diamond producing technique was developed by Robert Linares, working with a collaborator who became co-founder of Apollo. The diamond growing production rooms are long halls filled with refrigerator size chambers bristling with tubes and gauges. In just a few weeks the lab grown diamonds will be half carats.

A little history - in 1796 chemist Smithson Tennant discovered that diamond is made out of carbon. But only since the 1950s have scientists managed to produce diamonds, forging them out of graphite subjected to temperatures as high as 2,550 degres and pressures 55,000 times greater than that of the earth's atmosphere.

The diamonds coming out of Apollo are now so perfect Jewellers are unable to tell they are lab created.