De Beers says ‘no thanks’ to lab-grown diamonds

Lab-grown diamonds may be seen as a way to a more ethical and sustainable future by some in the jewellery sector but one of diamonds’ biggest names — De Beers — is now ending a six-year experiment in the area.

It will no longer create ‘synthetic’ diamonds for its Lightbox brand with CEO Al Cook saying at an event in Las Vegas that the company sees the future of lab-grown diamonds in “technology rather than in jewellery”. 

De Beers is an Afro-British business controlled by the UK mining giant Anglo-American, which plans to separate it from its main operations. De Beers’ Element Six business will now switch its Portland, Oregon facility into a plant producing diamonds for industrial applications, which is what Element Six was originally set up for.

The company launched its lab-grown diamonds under the Lightbox jewellery brand in 2018 but prices for such diamonds fell sharply during the period.

However, the Lightbox brand will remain with the CEO telling various news services that it has enough inventory to keep sales going for the “foreseeable future”. A decision on its longer-term future will be made at a later date.

He also said that a core pillar of Lightbox has been its carbon-neutral and made in America stance and the company is keen to keep both aspects of the brand.

As for De Beers more widely, it’s clearly preparing to renew its focus on promoting natural diamonds and differentiating them from the lab-grown variety.