A booming market for artificial diamonds yet no match for the real thing

Don't expect the synthetic stones to surpass natural ones anytime soon because the world's biggest miners of diamonds aren't looking to get into man-made diamonds

The focus on man-made diamonds in India has grown, thanks to dubious practices by absconding jewellers, jailed diamantaires and missing tycoons that include usual suspects Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, but the supply of synthetic stones has been in legitimate use since the 1950s and growing steadily.
 
According to industry reports, the worldwide production of synthetic stones grew to almost 7 million carats last year, while the production of mined stones slid to around 111 million carats — down from a peak of more than 150 million carats mined in 2017.
 
But don’t expect the stones to surpass