In our research, we analyzed the energy and water consumption in diamond mining and laboratory synthesis operations. We used publicly available reports issued by two market leaders, DeBeers and ALROSA, to estimate water and energy use per carat of a rough diamond. The efficiency of the two most popular synthesis technologies for artificial diamonds—High-Pressure-High-Temperature (HPHT) and Microwave-assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (M-CVD)—was examined. We found that the modern HPHT presses, with open cooling circuits, consume about 36 kWh/ct when producing gem-quality and average-sized (near-) colorless diamonds. ALROSA and DeBeers use about 96 kWh/ct and 150 kWh/ct, respectively, including all energy required to mine. Energy consumption of M-CVD processes can be different and depends on technological conditions. Our M-CVD machine is the least energy-efficient, requiring about 215 kWh/ct in the single-crystal regime, using 2.45-GHz magnetron for the support synthesis. The M-CVD methods of individual synthetic companies IIa Technology and Ekati Mine are different from our results and equal 77 and 143 kWh/ct, respectively. Water consumption for the HPHT and M-CVD methods was insignificant: approximately zero and 0.002 m³/ct, respectively, and below 0.077 m³/ct for ALROSA-mined diamonds. This study touches upon the impact of the diamond production methods used on the carbon footprint.

Diamond is a form of carbon that has been attracting attention for hundreds of years, owing to its physical and chemical properties of hardness, thermal conductivity, chemical inertness, and transparency. Labor and the long-term impact of a diverse workforce, is one of the most important factors in diamond mining and production and must be considered when assessing economic benefits. In the present study, we examined the labor input required to obtain one carat of diamond, via three methods: open-cast mining, high-pressure high-temperature synthesis and 2.45-GHz microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. We discovered that to produce a carat of (near-) colorless diamond, the labor inputs are approximately 1.83 h and 3.43 h of work using the HPHT and 2.45-GHz MP CVD methods, respectively. We noted a lower labor input of work per carat for the mining of diamonds of assorted sizes and colors from the two main DeBeers diamond fields in Botswana (Orapa and Jwaneng). This paper is based on our observations and public reports, and we think that our findings will be helpful in understanding the labor input per carat for the analyzed methods, understanding the main technological challenges facing the diamond industry that could potentially affect future labor productivity.

Purpose: This article analyzes the influence of familiarity bias on respondents’ decision-making process, using results from online experiments. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 255 research participants from post-Soviet countries completed 510 online tests that were presented in the form of investment games. In the games, the respondents were allowed to sell, buy, or hold two types of asset portfolios: familiar and unfamiliar assets. Findings: Holders of portfolios with familiar assets were 1.34 times more likely to be persistent in selling winners and holding losers and 1.10 times more likely to be persistent in buying fallen assets than holders of unfamiliar portfolios. Moreover, respondents who managed familiar assets tended to generate terminal result distributions with a kurtosis that was 27.8% higher than the distributions of those managing unfamiliar assets. Originality: Several academic studies have examined familiarity bias, the disposition effect, the positive feedback trading of individual investors, and risk-seeking trading; however, they investigated these topics separately. In the current study, we therefore created an online experiment to identify new aspects of investor behavior.