De Beers Begins Building $94M Synthetics Center

RAPAPORT… De Beers subsidiary Element Six has started work on its new
$94 million lab-grown-diamond facility just outside Portland, Oregon.

The factory will manufacture synthetic diamonds exclusively
for De Beers’ new fashion-jewelry brand, Lightbox Jewelry. The groundbreaking
ceremony took place Wednesday, Lightbox said.

De Beers expects to complete the 60,000-square-foot facility
by August 2019, with production beginning in 2020. The facility will have the capacity
to produce more than 500,000 carats of rough lab-grown diamonds per year. It
will complement Element Six’s existing manufacturing center in Ascot, UK.