Occam's razor.
Diamonds are really rare and now that man made diamonds can fill the void much cheaper for industrial use, the cost will keep coming down.
Probably for the same reason Da Bears left Chicago. Not worth it.
Gem-quality diamonds are as common as pearls. If it weren’t for deBeers strangle hold on supply they would be a relatively inexpensive jewelry item. Closing the mine is, at least in part, another move to limit availability.
A few years ago the Russians developed a very product mine yielding mostly <2 carat stones. DeBeers bought them all.
I used to own part of an operation that occasionally bought diamonds from some of De Beers direct customers. It was either “double keystone” or “triple keystone.” That is buying level as set by De Beers. Tripple keystone is third level below De Beers and essentially a wholesale level of which there are multiples. I sat in Kraus and Gross offices in the diamond district in NY chatting with a man dressed as a Catholic priest. He was a Jew who used the priest disguise to smuggle diamonds. (Hilarious story about having to give last rights to a guy who dropped dead in a train station in Europe.)
It is common knowledge in the diamond business that the only reason diamonds have value is because De Beers controls the quantity available. They are common as dirt. A couple of decades ago the Israelis decided they’d go into business on their own and De Beers crushed them. A couple of mines were running in South America without the De Beer’s sanction. De Beers bribed the neighboring military to kill all the miners. De Beers had warned the miners the simply weren’t allowed to mine. Period. When they did it anyway, De Beers acted. (Story per sitting in the office in NY.)
The Soviets started flooding the market with diamonds and De Beers explained what was going to happen to the price and then gave the Soviets a deal so the Soviet diamonds would run through De Beers keeping the price high.
The problem De Beers will have is the diamonds getting onto the market through back channels because closing this mine and keeping it closed are two different issues. Most likely, De Beers will use Russian mercenaries to “enforce” the closure. That’s what they’ve done in the past.
Countries that export diamonds through De Beers also use their police to enforce the exclusive agreement. That’s the “soft” way of handling the problem.
If you have to laser engrave a lab stone to distinguish it from natural.....
Half the cost, usually a lot more fire and other advantages make the myth of natural diamond value even more of a scam. Diamonds, an emotional promotion.
Unless you just want to blow the price of a very expensive new vehicle I have seen lab rings that put natural ones to shame. After all, it is just for show.
Apparently the Chinese manufacture perfect diamonds much cheaper than what can be mined. The price of diamonds has collapsed and there is nothing De Beers can do about it.
https://youtu.be/qf78SpQj37o?si=7bBabGXqzKDiD_MU
AI
Lab-grown diamonds have significantly disrupted the global diamond market, challenging the traditional pricing and exclusivity of natural diamonds. Initially driven by affordability, ethical concerns, and technological advancements that allow production in weeks rather than millennia, synthetic stones now account for approximately 20% of the total diamond market. This surge in supply has forced major players like De Beers to invest heavily in detection technology and pivot their strategies, with some natural diamond prices dropping by as much as 40% due to falling demand.
However, the threat may be peaking as lab-grown diamond prices continue to crash—potentially declining another 50-80%—due to oversupply from producers in China and India. Industry leaders, including the World Diamond Council, note that this price collapse is undermining consumer confidence in synthetic gems, leading to a shift in preferences back toward natural stones. While lab-grown diamonds have successfully democratized access to diamond jewelry, their ubiquity is eroding their status as luxury items, potentially bifurcating the market where only exceptional, verified natural diamonds retain investment value.
If De Beers released all the diamonds in its possession, diamonds would be worthless.
Bkmk
DeBeers hoards diamonds because short supply equals higher retail prices. Cecil Rhodes began the practice himself in 1888-89.
Plus the wholesalers collude to fix prices. The international diamond cartel is one of the few than hasn’t been driven out of existence by law enforcement.
Gem-quality stones are rarer than industrial diamonds by a factor of about eight (8). Yet gems cost hundred of times more than industrial diamonds because of the hoarding, the price-fixing, and a 100-200% retail markup.
It hasn’t been that long that there was no standard, diamond or otherwise, for engagement rings. It was only after WWII, when DeBeers decided to roll the dice on a high-dollar ad campaign (because their sales were in a slump) that an advert copywriter came up with what some consider the greatest advertising campaign ever: A diamond is forever. Implying that if you give her a diamond engagement ring, you intend to be married to her ... forever. Sigh!
And that’s why the hideously overpriced diamond engagement ring is to this day a cultural landmark: an ad campaign.
And the irony is, what else do you own other than your wife’s diamond engagement ring that you wouldn’t begin to have a clue how to verify the authenticity of?
The old De Beers slogan was “Diamonds are forever” then they changed it to this years “Take her breath away”
The new slogan is ‘Diamonds, render her speechless.’
Why don’t they just go ahead and say it?
‘Diamonds... that’ll shut her up!’, for a minute.
Ron White
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rDFtPFY1bBM