The Diamond Addition Impact is a major contributor to the economies of many mining countries, providing employment, foreign exchange earnings and infrastructure and social development investments. However, as with any industrialized economy, it has its downsides, including deforestation and ecological damage, conflict diamonds and child labor.
Whether it’s the extraction, polishing or manufacturing and retailing of diamonds, a single carat mined diamond generates more than 101 kilowatt hours of electricity, consumes 3,900 litres of water, creates 1.13 kilos of atmospheric particulate pollutants, 2.7 tonnes of heavy metals and 4.3 tonnes of rock debris. These aren’t even taking into account the environmental costs of deforestation and loss of natural habitat or the human health impacts of the noise and vibrations from machinery and human activity.
Adding Brilliance: The Impact of Diamond Additions
Mining also causes soil erosion, contaminating water supplies and harming ecosystems. Changing the nutrient composition of a river or lake can lead to changes in species and even death in fish, while dumping toxic chemicals into lakes can affect both human and animal life. There have been irreversible changes to lake water quality in Yellowknife’s Ekati and Snap Lake, where mining companies use ammonia under the lake beds to extract minerals – killing the fish that live there and affecting the water supply for city residents downstream.
Finally, mining produces high levels of greenhouse gases from the use of heavy equipment and generating slurry wastes. One study found that a single carat of mined diamond produces 57 kilograms of carbon emissions, while lab-created diamonds only produce 0.028 grams per carat — less than 10% of the amount generated by flying a roundtrip from New York to Cancun for your honeymoon.…