De Beers will shift its focus from the production of lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) for the jewellery market to the development of highly designed synthetic diamonds for industrial and technological uses, including supercomputer components and space exploration equipment.
“The strategy is both ambitious and transformative, positioning us to lead the recovery of the diamond industry, fully integrating our operations from upstream to downstream,” Mining Weekly quoted De Beers group managed operations chief executive Moses Madondo as saying at the Joburg Indaba, in Johannesburg.
He also stated that the price of natural diamonds and LGDs would experience a rapid bifurcation as the availability of natural diamonds decreases in the years ahead.
Madondo said that the average price of a 2-carat natural diamond has increased by 1% annually in recent years.
Conversely, the average retail price of a 2-carat LGD has decreased by 25% annually during the same period, with the wholesale LGD price plummeting by as much as 36%.
“I should also debunk the myth that the difference between LGDs and natural diamonds cannot be told. It definitely can be told,” he added, noting that De Beers has had synthetic diamond detection technology available for decades.
Madondo stated that the diamond verification tool built by De Beers was incredibly exact and trustworthy, with a false positive rate of 0%.
“This means there has never been a diamond that was not natural that has not been picked up by that machine,” he said.
Madondo revealed that a consumer-friendly version of this device was being developed and would go to market soon.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief, Rough&Polished
