With a De Beers spinoff, the diamond industry faces even more uncertainty

As part of a sweeping restructuring of its business, mining giant Anglo American announced plans to spin off subsidiary De Beers, the 136-year-old diamond behemoth who gave us the iconic phrase "a diamond is forever" in an ad campaign in the 1940s.

The move comes at a time of turmoil in the diamond industry. Over the past few years, technology has made the creation of lab-grown diamonds cheaper – which, in addition to bringing baseball’s Steroid Era debates to the diamond industry (lab-grown or natural?), has led to pricing and supply chaos.

• Prices for a polished 1-carat natural stone have dropped more than 25% since their 2022 peak to reach their lowest level in eight years ($5,185; data as of August 2023).
• Prices for synthetic diamonds have dropped even more, falling from ~$5,000 per 1-carat polished stone in 2016 to $1,425 as of August 2023. Experts attribute this to a rush of suppliers entering the market.

Lab-grown diamonds may as well buy a house and start planting some roots – because they’re here to stay. Synthetic/lab-grown diamonds comprised ~18% of the $89 billion global diamond jewelry market in 2023, up from 3.5% in 2018. Analysts expect the category to account for more than 20% of the industry’s sales this year.