A very small percentage of the rough diamonds mined at Argyle could be cut into stones on the D-to-Z color scale. The mine also produced a small number of colored diamonds in pink, red, blue, and violet colors. But, most of the rough coming out of their mine did not meet De Beers...
There are multiple factors driving this trend, including a perceived sustainability advantage — though this has been called into question in recent years. Otherwise, there are lots of verifiable advantages to lab-grown diamonds. Not only are they a lot cheaper than the naturally-occurring stones, ...