Leonardo DiCaprio's new business: he will "grow" diamonds in Spain

Growing inside a factory in a few days what nature is capable of creating by itself in hundreds of years. This is the idea of ​​an American company that has set its sights on Extremadura, and on the 3,000 hours of sunshine it offers a year, to manufacture one of the most valued gemstones in the world: the diamond. It already does so in the United States, but now Diamond Foundry, an American company that emerged in Silicon Valley a decade ago and has actor Leonardo DiCaprio as an investor , wants to open up to the European market from the town of Trujillo in Cáceres.

Since he starred in the movie Blood Diamond in 2006, Dicaprio, both a renowned actor and a profound activist, felt disgusted by obtaining diamonds in Africa in conditions of semi-slavery to finance armed conflicts, so he decided to invest, a decade later (2015 ), at Diamond Foundry.

The company proposes an investment of 670 million to build an industry in more than 30,000 square meters in which it will implement cutting-edge technology to 'cultivate' this expensive and coveted mineral that could be a shock in the technology sector. Because although Diamond Foundry has so far been dedicated to the manufacture of synthetic diamonds for jewelry (it has its own brand of jewelry), the 'extremeños' will be used for industrial use. They will be made into diamond crystal sheets or chips and used as semiconductors for circuits or chips, which will allow improvements in the field of electronics and high technology, especially 5G and electric cars, due to their exceptional properties of hardness and Thermal conductivity. The 'Di Caprio diamonds' could even become a good alternative to microchips as they are known until today, scarce and highly demanded today, which are made mainly of silicon.

To create Extremaduran diamonds, 600 reactors will be installed that will work thanks to a 120-megawatt self-consumption photovoltaic plant with 60 megawatts of batteries that will be built by Powen Energías Renovables, also promoter of the project, next to the factory. "It is something absolutely cutting-edge and an opportunity to re-industrialise Spain", highlights Rafael Benjumea, head of Powen. In short, they will be diamonds that will grow thanks to the Trujillo sun.

The company was founded in 2012 by entrepreneurs Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz and has managed to raise close to 100 million dollars from investors who see this technology as a viable alternative to obtain diamonds for the jewelry industry outside the mines, many of them located in developing countries under appalling working conditions.

The Extremaduran industrial project has the support of the Junta de Extremadura and the Ministry of Industry, it will need around a year and a half of administrative procedures and permits and two years of construction , but it could start operating before the first year of works, since it will be built by modules. They estimate about 300 direct jobs in the area.

It was in June when the agreement between Industry and the Junta de Extremadura and the American company was signed, thus giving direct work to around 300 people. Guillermo Fernández Vara, president of the Junta de Extremadura, declared then that "the region of Extremadura is the best place in the world to be able to carry out this project" and boosted its natural resources, something that DiCaprio has known how to value, as he does with many other of his companies, in which he invests, above all, if they create innovative projects that protect the environment, take care of endangered species and ensure the future of threatened communities.

In addition to being an actor and defender of the environment, he is also an entrepreneur. He has invested in fair trade companies like Runa, a brand that distributes organic teas and natural energy drinks made from a plant native to Ecuador called guayusa. Around 3,000 indigenous families grow it and the company hires them directly. The goal is to secure the future of these communities.

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