“Diamond mines are floundering as lab-grown diamonds flood the market and prices plummet. One fifth of all diamond jewelry sold worldwide is now made using synthetic stones, including most new engagement rings in the US,” reports The Doomslayer.
Some diamond mines have closed or suspended operations. Reuters reports:
Australian miner Burgundy Diamond Mines laid off several hundred employees and contractors and suspended operations at its Point Lake diamond mine in Canada due to record-low diamond prices….The Point Lake site in Canada‘s Northwest Territories is part of the company’s Ekati mine. Burgundy said its other site in the remote Arctic region is still operating.
“Burgundy Diamond Mines made the decision to temporarily suspend open pit mining at Point Lake, which constitutes a shift from surface mining operations in the short term,” said Ariella Calin, corporate communications manager at Burgundy Diamonds. With global diamond prices at record lows, the Point Lake project is proving to be sub-economic.
While mines are producing less diamonds, laboratories are producing far more of them, resulting in diamonds being much more plentiful overall. The Wall Street Journal reports:
“Synthetic diamonds currently account for more than a fifth of global diamond jewelry sales, up from less than 1% in 2016, according to Paul Zimnisky, an independent analyst.
For engagement rings, the penetration is even higher. More than half the engagement rings purchased last year in the U.S. had a lab-created diamond, a 40% increase compared with 2019, according to a survey of nearly 17,000 U.S. couples by wedding planning website The Knot.
‘Diamonds were always seen as expensive, a rich person’s asset,’ says Matt Bick, a third-generation diamond seller with a showroom on the same London block as the De Beers headquarters. ‘Now everyone can wear them.”
