Ex-Dominion CEO to Launch Synthetics Firm

RAPAPORT... The former CEO of Dominion Diamond Mines is launching alab-grown-diamond venture targeting the bridal market, the Financial Timesreported. Patrick Evans's company will produce synthetic stones at aUS location with access to cheap solar power, the report said Sunday. It willsell diamonds above 1 carat, pricing them at a discount of 15% to 20% offnatural diamonds. Evans left Dominion last month after about a year in charge,having previously been CEO of Mountain Province for more than a decade. Basedon his mining experience, he expects the supply of natural diamonds to have almostrun dry by the middle of the century due to a lack of recent discoveries, theUK newspaper said. "I've explored on four continents - it's about 1,000 timesmore difficult to find an economic diamond mine than a gold mine," he told the FinancialTimes. "The industry is just not investing in exploration." The executive, who refers to synthetics as "cultureddiamonds," is taking a different approach from that of De Beers, which launcheda synthetic-diamond brand last year focused on relatively low-cost fashion jewelry. De Beers argues that lab-grown diamonds are fun, colorful products thatlack the scarcity of their natural counterparts, and are therefore not whatconsumers want when buying jewelry to mark special milestones. Though Evans is aiming for the higher-priced engagement-ringsegment, he claimed his venture would not endanger the natural sector. "I do not see cultured and mined diamonds being incompetition," Evans told Rapaport News Monday. "Some people will preferto buy mined diamonds. Others will be happy to buy cultured." His anticipated pricing is also much higher than the normfor synthetics. The price of a 1-carat, G-color, VS-clarity polished lab-growndiamond stood at about 50% of the natural equivalent during the fourth quarterof 2018, Bain & Company said in a report in December. "We don't think it's necessary to discount the productheavily," the London-based newspaper quoted Evans as saying. "We think thatwe'll be able to achieve natural pricing."Image: Patrick Evans at the Gahcho Ku?(C) mine in Canada while CEO of Mountain Province. (Mountain Province)