Introduction
Diamonds are typically are known for their high value and beauty within the jewelry industry, as well as other aesthetically pleasing goods. However, not all diamonds are used for this exquisite purpose. In fact, all the irregularly shaped or discolored diamond ore unsuited for jewels is processed for important industrial usage. These diamonds are hence known as industrial diamonds. The covalent carbon bonds that make up a diamond’s chemical structure makes industrial diamonds a versatile and instrumental tool in a variety of fields: “computer chip production; construction; drilling for minerals, natural gas, and oil; machinery manufacturing; stone cutting and polishing; and transportation” (USGS, 2016 and geology.com). The United States is the world’s leading consumer of industrial diamond, its main uses for the mineral being stone-cutting and highway maintenance. The U.S. is expected to remain the top consumer due to its constant expansion and repair of its large highway system (Rough Polished, 2011).
Diamond production can be either synthetically-based or mined, with each method accompanied by its own pros and cons. Mining can be done via an open-pit mine or underground tunnels, most prevalent in countries including Russia, Botswana, Canada and Angola. These locations can face the aversive environmental impacts common within this context in the form of “land disturbance, energy use and emissions, use of water, and impact on biodiversity” (World Diamond Council).
Land disturbance is the most prominent issue as poorly supervised mining efforts may lead to unnecessary removal of large volumes of earth material, potentially destabilizing natural ecosystems and habitats. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that diamond extraction is an exception within the global mining industry in that it does not input any hazardous material. On the other hand, synthetic diamonds, while less directly harmful to the immediate environment, still require raw materials and cannot be labeled as “eco-friendly” (Bates, 2014).
Greenville, South Carolina, United States
To produce synthetic diamonds, small diamond seeds on a tray are exposed to ultra-pure carbon gases, among others, inside a temperature regulated, high-pressure gas chamber. As the gases excite, carbon begins to rain from the ceiling of the chamber. Slowly, the seeds grow until they are the desired thickness, a process that can take less than a month. The technicians remove the fully formed diamond crystals, and use laser cutters to shape them for industrial use. Synthetic diamonds are chemically, visually, and physically the same as naturally occurring diamonds. Additionally, as they are one of the hardest surfaces known to man, they make a great industrial tool for cutting, sanding, or sharpening very hard materials, including other diamonds (ScioDiamonds).
Synthetic diamonds have a lot of potential for diamond consumers, as well as to the environment, specifically since it involves no open pit mines. Because synthetic diamonds are not a limited resource, unlike their naturally occurring siblings, they can be made indefinitely and for a much cheaper price. In the context of industrial diamonds, synthetic diamonds are a very economical solution to diamonds which are used for their hardness for industrial cutting and building, since they are chemically the same.
Greenville, South Carolina, home to Scio Diamonds, a synthetic diamond manufacturer, sports a decent population of 64,579, and is the fastest growing urban area in the state. As a southern state, it has a humid subtropical climate, with four seasons. (Wikipedia). Greenville has many different economic outlets, as the location of several North American companies’ headquarters. When making their diamonds, Scio Diamonds use a their patented process of CVD (Sciodiamond), or Chemical Vapor Deposition, described above. By growing their diamonds so quickly, Scio Diamonds calls their product “sustainable,” because it is not a quantity that will run out, as opposed to mined diamonds, of which there are only so many (Prnewswire, 2015). A recent press release noted Scio Diamond’s new headquarters in Greenville that would generate many new jobs for locals (Greenville Development).
However, according to a newspaper source from 2014, JCK Online, Scio Diamonds, though it holds a lot of technological promise, has yet to actually be a successful business. Since its conception, it has not been able to overcome the drama of an upstarting business. This might explain its lack of a presence on the Wikipedia page and the seeming disconnect of Scio Diamonds to the town of Greenville upon numerous Google searches. It appears that though Scio Diamonds could have a definite influence on the economy and town of Greenville, it has yet to reach that point, as it is still trying to organize its internal problems. JCK Online states, “Scio has some advanced technology and some promising deals. But after a tumultuous three years, it remains to be seen if it can truly produce salable diamonds or just lawsuits and rancor.” The company could be a source of economic revenue for the city, by providing job opportunities. Additionally, it could affect the overall view of the town by becoming a potentially iconic industry for the townspeople to associate themselves with, and the rest of the country to the town. However, despite that potential, it seems at the moment that the company is too caught up with its administration issues, which include lawsuits on the company from angry investors who disagree with its direction, and disagreements between the board and CEO.
Shannon, Ireland
Element Six has major production facilities all around the globe namely in China, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, the US and the UK. They produce synthetic diamonds for a wide variety of industrial applications ranging from laser optics to defense and have done so for the past 50 years. One of their main manufacturing facilities is located in Shannon Ireland: home to The Cliffs of Moher and close to 10,000 people. A major highway separates Shannon’s sprawling industrial area from its quaint residential town center. The Shannon Airport, on the city limits, is one of the town’s most popular tourist attractions (believe it or not). Apart from heavy tourism, Shannon derives most of its income from the town’s industrial sector. As is the case with most of Ireland, the climate is characterized as warm and temperate with hot and humid summers (Marine West Coast Climate).
In order to move away from the simplistic, surface level, it is necessary to examine the relation between Element Six’s diamond production and the town of Shannon as an ecosystem. According to their environmental mission statement their company is committed to “the responsible design, use, re-use, recycling and disposal of [their] products” (Element Six, 2017). Upon careful review of their company wide Environmental Policy, however, they do not appear to strive to achieve standards far beyond what is required for a company of their sort by law. In addition, a simple Google Maps search reveals the mass density of impermeable cover that characterizes Shannon’s entire industrial district, of which this particular Element Six manufacturing facility is an substantial portion. Along this same vein, it is not diamonds themselves that have an environmental impact but it is rather the physical presence of the company in Shannon that is in question. This is, however, not to discount Element Six’s efforts to maintain a sustainable standard for their business. As stated by their aforementioned Environmental Policy, the company “assess potential environmental impact when planning any new developments” and “aims to conserve energy and water and manage waste and emissions, following the principles of reduction, recovery, re-use and recycling” both in the production of their product and in the construction of their facilities (Element Six, 2017). Although these statements are fairly basic, they are good indicators of the company’s efforts to protect the places they occupy while still providing useful materials and infrastructure to those communities. In connection to place, Element Six has a large impact on the people who call Shannon their home.
The people of Shannon and its surrounding rural areas are impacted, be it negative or positive, by Element Six’s practices and the town’s industrial district as a whole. For instance, this January Element Six announced the creation of 100 new jobs at their Shannon production facility ranging from hands on to management positions. This new addition as well as others like it in the past have contributed to the availability of a wide variety of positions in the greater Shannon area and have promoted the physical growth and economic expansion of the town. A more concrete example of Element Six’s work, not only impacting the people of Shannon but people around the globe as well, is their development of a product known as Diamox. The newly developed electrochemical cell “system treats wastewater containing difficult-to-oxidize dissolved pollutants” thus allowing for a more effective wastewater filtration system and an even more streamlined process (Access Intelligence, 2016). The distribution of this product will allow for increased feasibility of wastewater treatment, reuse, and removal and will thus lead to an improved state of place through all definitions. Simply the existence of Diamox fulfills most of Element Six’s Environmental Policy concerns by allowing for the efficient and cost effective filtration of “Spent caustic, Textile wastewater, Pharmaceutical wastewater, Landfill leachate, and Industrial chemicals” (Element Six, 2017). The possibilities for this product, and Element Six as a business, to benefit the community of Shannon are endless; the people employed by this corporation are continually provided with a viable source of income and a heightened sense of place and security.
Mirny, Sakha Republic, Russia
Mirny, Russia is located in the Sakha Republic (also known as Yakutia), a largely uninhabited region of northeast Siberia. Known as the “diamond capital of Russia,” the town is above the arctic circle, surrounded by forest and resides 2,671 miles away from Moscow. Its obscure location is due to the presence of a highly productive diamond deposit, and now ~70% of the population works in some way to produce these diamonds (Block, 2011).
The main diamond mine, named Mir (“peace”) opened in 1955, to accommodate Russia’s increasing demand for industrial diamonds following World War Two. Mir is an open pit mine and was highly productive, producing both luxury and industrial diamonds until the pit closed in 2001 due to safety concerns. The pit by its closure was the one of the largest man-made holes in the world, spanning 1,722 feet deep and 3,937 feet across. In the time Mir was in operation, “about 350 million cubic meters (~12 billion cubic feet) of rock were extracted from the quarry” (Rzhevsky, 2014). All diamond mining in that area today is done underground, and at the rate of 1 million tons a year, diamonds will remain in supply until 2043 (Alrosa).
The diamond industry still has a large hold on the economy of Mirny, with Alrosa, Russia’s largest diamond production company, keeping their headquarters in the town. The corporation is partially owned by the Russian State, and all diamonds, regardless of grade, belong to the state. Alrosa also conducts a large amount of sorting in Mirny, using their own low-grade diamonds and industrial diamonds to conduct their polishing and mining. A large amount of infrastructure is also provided by Alrosa, including housing and hospitals (Alrosa).
The people of Mirny include both indigenous Yakut people, as well as those who have moved to get jobs in the diamond industry. The mixed community leads to a very accepting one—the miners see themselves as a family. Alrosa provides some healthcare and pensions for workers, but there are some downfalls to working in this environment. One family has experienced challenges with Alrosa’s employment, due to no “opportunity to advance,” “constantly revoking benefits,” as well as management intolerant to complaints (Iskrov, 2016). Regardless of experience, it is impossible for one to live in Mirny without some connection to the diamond production.
Orapa, Botswana
Orapa, an east-central town in Botswana, Africa, hosts the nation’s largest open-pit diamond mine owned by Debswana, a corporation jointly owned by the state government and the De Beers company (Britannica, 2012). The town is situated on the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert, experiencing dry temperate conditions during the winter and humid, sub-topical ones during the summer. Summer is dominated by a particularly windy season well known by the community due to the town’s close proximity to the Kalahari (Britannica, 2016). Orapa is historically built in close relation to the Botswana’s diamond mining industry after the large diamond field was discovered in 1967. After being fully operational in 1971, the site has become the largest in the world in surface area, enveloping 118 square kilometers (Mining Technology, 2017). “Orapa” in Sesarwa translates to “resting place for lions”, fitting for a mine of such magnitude (Debswana, 2017).
The Orapa mine produces diamond from kimberlite rock which lies just above the Archaean granite layer. The earth is comprised of both volcanic and sedimentary rock amongst rich diamond reserves contained by two pipes (defined as “a roughly cylindrical diamond-bearing geological formation” (Britannica, 2012)) which conjoin close to the surface and date back to 93 million years in age (Mining Technology, 2017). The mine produces about 12 million carats of diamond a year, a share of which is processed as industrial diamond in a nearby processing plant (Debswana, 2017). The recovery rate of the diamond collection sits at a comfortable ratio of about 0.87 carats per tonne. Orapa’s town grew with the mine—its population quadrupling by 1981 and now reaching a population of 12,000 people (Gwebu, 2012) (Debswana, 2017). Debswana employs most town members with a larger proportion of men than women but only by a slight amount (Republic of Botswana, 2011). It is clear that the inhabitants of the community rely on the diamond company for economic stability; in fact, the majority of the town is comprised of immigrants from other parts of the country who came looking for gainful employment (Gwebu, 2012).
In order to protect its diamond product, Debswana constructed Orapa as a closed town, encircled by a fence to keep out criminals and thieves. Entrance is only allowed via permit and surveillance is operational 24 hours a day. However, the “restricted” nature of the town fails to prevent it from flourishing as a positive community—its foundation includes schools, restaurants, parks, and hospitals that grew along with the diamond industry there (Republic of Botswana, 2017). As a result, the literacy rate is high for both men and women, and practically all of its members attended or attends primary school with the majority then attending secondary school. The bulk of the population is single, either attending school or working (Republic of Botswana, 2011). The Orapa game park within the boundaries of the town acts as a place of public interaction with the wildlife of the area and as an aesthetic sanctuary (Republic of Botswana, 2017) Residents consequently feel safe and productive in their community, and they have the diamond industry to thank for it. They collectively work, learn, and collaborate gratefully under the infrastructure of the state and of the De Beers company within the Debswana diamond corporation.
Conclusion
The most important thing an informed consumer of industrial diamonds should consider is where his or her diamonds are coming from. In some of the largest communities founded on mining, the industry can define a sense of place for the people living there by providing most all of the economic stability, political structure, and social interactions within the community. Citizens of those mining towns generally feel interconnected and grateful for this community-building infrastructure. The ecosystem is affected as well, although aversively via displacement and resource use. Where industrial diamonds are grown in a lab, on the other hand, there is a less binding sense of place and less of an impact on the immediate ecosystem. In the case of synthetic diamond manufacturing, the attention should be turned to the impact of the manufacturer as a company. Despite the potential negative impacts of diamond production, the strength of the ore and its creation of place makes it essential in its use and practically irreplaceable among the workers, companies, and consumers involved.
The main lesson learned is one of appreciation. The situation of industrial diamond manifests broad and interconnected consequences for the people and environment involved with each step of the mineral’s journey from extraction to consumption. These consequences are both positive, negative, and sometimes in between, but nevertheless asserts an authority of place-making.
References
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